To get the meaning of "dabei" across, I'd say something like: ... with others, even though he probably would have ...

Or: He probably would have even made friends there.

Word order: 'he would probably have ...' would be the most usual in BE.

"Probably" is closer to Fels's "bestimmt" than "might have" - "hätte vielleicht".

Since when does "bestimmt" mean "probably"? "certainly," "definitely"

Nor do I see what the problem is with "and yet"---if one's going to deal with the "dabei" by treating it as a form of "even though"---"although" and "and yet" in this context are synonymous, I would say, differing only in register.

In this instance, I don't quite agree. I think German speakers often say "bestimmt' when we would say 'I'm sure ...' or 'I bet... '.

I think it would sound very strange to say "he would certainly/definitely have made friends" - how can anyone know that? (Especially if this is a youngster with some social or other difficulties.) Whereas the use of "bestimmt" sounds OK to me, as an expression of the speaker's opinion.

I agree that "and yet" is perfectly possible.

#11 Das nennt man dann einen Zirkelschluss... jedenfalls was das "might" betrifft. :-)

Ist das mit dem "yet" möglicherweise eine AE-BE-Sache?

I (AE) have nothing against "and yet" (as a general proposition). It wouldn't be my first choice for the OP, however.

PS.

Re #13.

I agree that "and yet" often has a different tone than "even though."

So zuversichtlich wie "certainly", "definitely" (#9) hier allerdings nicht.

Ganz subjektiv: Wenn ich mir vorstelle, ich hätte den Satz im OP geschrieben - für mich würde der Satz mit "might" genau das ausdrücken.

Alternativ nochmal etwas freier und einen Gedanken aus #10 aufgreifend:

(falls eine Umwandlung in die Ich-Form erlaubt ist).

Ich stimme allen zu, die 'bestimmt' nicht mit 'definitely' übersetzen.

Bei 'might' allein fehlt mir das 'obwohl', und es ist mir auch zu schwach. 'Er hätte dort vielleicht Freunde gefunden' ist eine ganz andere Aussage als 'Obwohl er dort bestimmt Freunde gefunden hätte'.

 

(As for “and yet,” there seem to be differing perceptions here, but I’d like to point out that I built conditions into my #9 (“if …” and “in this context”) – there are dangers in becoming too general. With "synonymous" in #9 I might have been sticking my neck out too far, but I still think the "and yet" first suggested in #3 is an acceptable translation option in the context of the whole OP: it's adversative, yes; but then so are the other suggestions, and so for that matter is "dabei".)

Ich stimme  mit der Diskussion dass die Wörter "and yet" und "might" hier nicht ganz passen.

Deshalb würde ich etwa wie ....although he surely would have  made friends there.... schreiben.