Can you really blame them for de-emphasizing teams? They were horribly unbalanced because a small advantage at the beginning made new players gravitate towards the stronger teams. The only way to fix that (short of allowing people to flip-flop between teams at will) was to make teams matter less.

RedRum: The gyms initially could be stacked with way more pokemon and you could use the same type, so teams would stack as many Blissey as possible in them.

I mean, I understand why they did it, but now that teams are pretty much meaningless, it's kind of like why bother with them at all?

What small advantage?

I thought teams was more to add dps to a raid, since I can't actually imagine beating some of these guys on my own.

I like that pokemon in gyms are now on timers, and it's first come, first serve. Low level people have a shot now, rather than just hoping to find an empty one.

I have a mission to evo or catch fire pokemon, which is very awkward when it's raining like crazy and I spend a lot of time on the coast. Though, there were some ponyta walking around today, in the rain, which I'd never seen before. I assume it might have had something to do with the research goals.

Can you only do raids with members of your team? I assumed that you could do it with anyone? I've never done a raid with anyone, so I'm not sure on that. But when finishing a solo raid, it looks like you get bonus balls for having members of your team, but it also shows the other teams, so I figured anyone can raid together...

I guess "party" would be a better term, or group. I see the little group codes in the corner, which I assume is for people wanting to fight a raid together.

Which, kind of again, brings up the whole "teams are pretty much meaningless, so why not get rid of them?" question.
I mean, there's the whole possible argument of "to make it more fair so a certain people can't take all the gyms all the time and everyone has a chance to be on a gym" but in that case, just put a cap of like only 2 or 3 pokemon on gyms at any given time and call it good.

I mean, yeah, the previous team situation was very unbalanced and it could suck if you had joined Instinct instead of Mystic or Valor, but it actually encouraged people to work WITH their team. And, while they didn't last long, I saw, fairly regularly, higher level members working with new members to try to get them on gyms.
Now, unless you're a mega-newbie, you can pretty much handle gyms solo. No teamwork required.

I'm referring to raids at this point. I mean, how am I supposed to take down a raid boss when I can't even dent it before my team faints?

But again, can't you do raid battles with members of other teams, or does it have to be one specific team at a time? Because it seems to me that as long as they all use/have the same raid code thingy, the actual team they're on doesn't seem like it should matter.
As I have no friends to raid with, same team or otherwise, I can't test this theory.
But if team is irrelevant to raids, then...

That's my snag. I don't know how they work, mechanically, so I've never been able to try.

According to my google search, you can do raids with players from any team, so other than meager team bonuses on gym pokestop discs and possibly extra balls to catch the raid pokemon, teams aren't really that important.

Mostly that red is a more popular color than blue or yellow.

Wow, suddenly I feel lame because I haven't battled yet.
I believe my strongest pokemon right now is a Quilfish with a CP of 700-800.

EDIT:

Make that a Ryhorn at a CP of 800.

Ugh.
Just got home from a trip to the park and grocery store with my stepdad and niece. I caught at least ten Pokemon and lost a few (escaped the Pokeball and fled) and didn't achieve a single 'Great' or 'Excellent' throw.
Damn it, I got a random chance 'Excellent' throw not long ago but it just had to be BEFORE I'd gotten the 'get an excellent throw' assignment. It just needs one and I can't even manage a 'Great' throw!

I just made level 18.

Agreed, the research has increased my motivation to play.