Yes, we came for the cross-platform nature of Flash (browsers were even worse at being standards compliant back then so something like Java/jQuery/Flash was essential), but we stayed for the low-bandwidth high-quality vector animations. It's too bad they didn't just stick to the core features and had to continually add features that introduced security holes. I had high hopes that between SVG and Canvas that someone would create a flash replacement, but it hasn't happened yet.