It's not a team game nor should it be.
Don't think he wants to play as a team game. My wife and I want to play each other and we can't. Not even logging her into one controler and me in another. Then doing the invite. Poor game design flaw I hope to see fixed.
As for you'll see what the others have... You see what people get when the dice are rolled and cards are delt, Monolopy lets you see all cards, you can look at the past 6 dice rolls and board to get an idea of what people have, 7's tell you what people discards(bring up the turn text). So you have an idea of what others have. Not to mention I'm a numbers guy and can count cards. Don't have a great ranked record, 8-42, but people get pissed when I don't trade with them or rob them. Yeah, I know what you're doing and the trade is not worth it to me, or I played the robber on you cause the odds are you have a card I need you won't trade. Ofcourse, I'm one of the players who usually won't play the robber on anyone unless I have too or need too.