He would probably like the Sony Vegas way of adding Transitions (I do) wherein the clips actually overlap by however many frames you want the transition to be. Overlapping clips are crossfades and you just drop your desired transition on the overlap. Something I'd like to see come to PP.
If you use the FXFactory Transitions, you'll notice they do not act like native transitions in Premiere CS6 and require 2 tracks similar to A/B Roll Editing, minus the 3rd track in between.
I prefer the Vegas way of adding/altering transitions. If he's looking for a visual indication of a transition, I think he'll soon acclimate to recognizing the BOX between 2 clips as transitions. Hopefully he will appreciate the use of screen real-estate where a transition only requires 1 vertical track instead of 3.