i figure i might as well put my 2 cents in as well.

1) flash is not the future of the web. flash is a useful technology of today. In the future it will be replaced, possibly by something else, possibly by an evolved version of flash.

2)any splash screen with a loading bar should cause that designer to have their flash license revoked. If i design a splash screen, i make it very small in size, and use the time that it's playing to preload the graphics that make the interface for the rest of the site.

3) flash, in my opinion, is primarily useful for 3 things: animated web cartoons, web games, and navigation bars. Anything beyond this, you should ask "Am I able to do this ONLY in flash?" If you can do it with HTML, why not? There is a reason why amazon.com isn't a flash site: accessibility.

4) HTML is on it's way out as well: DHTML, XHTML, and XMLto are but a few of it's up-and-coming replacements.

5) for the record, flash can be smaller than it's html, gif and jpeg counterpart IF YOU ARE CAREFUL AND KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

ok, i think that's enough ranting for now.