Also, look at how slow Adobe is in keeping things updated for newer platforms. I'm happy flash is dead, and I hope creative suite will follow.. Probably not though.
Sure, there were downsides to Flash. It's true that many Flash-based apps/websites used more battery power than html/css stuff. But I'd argue that this is an indicator that there is a demand for rich content on the web. Since Flash was killed, we've seen a resurgence of all kinds of heavy JavaScript libraries, and forums like hackernews are full of people complaining about websites being sluggish and slow to load because of the amount of js that's being injected. Well guess what - now we've just replaced Flash with a fragmented open landscape.
Is it better? Maybe - to a degree the openness of html/css/js is good for obvious reasons. But to be honest, I think the web still hasn't recovered from the blow Apple gave to the creative ecosystem that had been built up around Flash, because there still isn't a similar tool that allows you to easily build web-based rich, interactive experiences, full of animation and rich graphics, the way Flash did about 15-20 (!) years ago
This was 2009. "Responsive layout" was barely a concept. Most HTML/CSS websites didn't have responsive layout. We were still figuring out all out.
Flash was as bad as Java Applets. They both tried to solve problems that couldn't be done with standard web technologies at the time. They both needed extra plugins so they could work... while everything else just works in the browsers. They have no place in web development.
It is also true that the vast majority of web pages done in Flash did not do it.