On the one hand, I agree that Apple nixing flash support on iOS seemed manipulative, unnecessary, and disingenuous at the time. It's part of a pattern of behavior from Apple I greatly dislike (unnecessarily failing to support standards under claims that doing so is superior--I say this as someone who happily owns Apple devices, as well as other companies'). It seemed premature.
On the other hand, the demise of Flash seemed obvious in the long run, with all the other standards and alternatives that were developing, and problems with the platform that never seemed to be addressed well. It seems like there's been a number of pieces out there lately eulogizing Flash, and although I understand its appeal, I don't really have a lot of sympathy for the idea that its demise was unanticipated. Even if Apple hadn't disabled Flash, the same outcome probably would have occurred. It just would have happened more gradually, with a more natural transition (which is important and why I have mixed feelings about all of this).