I'm guessing he didn't know mame has a cocktail mode in which it flips the screen for many of the classics. Or else he is just a glutton for punishment and throwing away money.
Yeah, I think that is a cool idea. Normal control panels and masking around the monitors with some sort of bezel would make a huge difference. That does get around the two player simultaneous issue as well as the viewing angle issues. Props for ingenuity, but fail on implementation as was previously state.
Edit: Plus it is a horizontal cabinet cabinet in a more traditional Vertical layout. In other words your not crammed next to someone like a joust, etc.