The general consensus is that
a. People hate Flash. ( dont really know why!!! after reading all the
HTML 5 vs Flash articles... ) / Developers hate javascript ( atleast
the people who like the OOP paradigm! ).
b. Developers love AS3. ( Its the next best thing to chocolate! ) /
People love nice UI.
Maybe people hate the things we create with Flash, such as heavyweight
advertisements you can't easily stop - but that's the programmers fault.
Personally, I am interested in educational applications, so AS3 is
great: very powerful with amazing potential. Just look at what Away3D
manage to do: http://away3d.com/showcase/
Isn't AIR is the obvious choice, and not Flash, when you want avoid
browser multiplicity?
John
