The Flash fanboys here all seem to be designers. I'm really curious why this is.

Really? Try to write code using a brush on a canvas. That's what designers feel having to design using code. It sucks.

I was doing visual design using code 30 years ago. It's doable, sometimes even preferable. It only sucks until you develope a facility with the tools. Just like watercoler paints or charcoal; which I've used for 40 years.

Design happens in your head, but it's a feed back loop between your tools and your imagination. Different tools _do_ influence the outcome.

I am curious about that too, unless these designers aren't very good and are just trying to translate print media to the web without considering the ramifications of the platform (see: almost every iPad magazine). Flash isn't a terrible platform to develop for. The app itself (as in Flash CS5.app) is pretty horrid, but it's not that hard to write ActionScript in vim or TextMate.

What Flash does offend is my sense of design, specifically UX design. Standard platform widgets? Nope. Standard platform behavior? Nope. Stealing keyboard focus? Yep. Bad scrolling? Yep. Back button? Nope.

Designers love Flash because it gives you a canvas to express yourself on.

Standards do not. If you think it does, I would predict you aren't a designer, because there's a big difference between technical parity and realistic results.

I can concede that as a designer, I really don't care if HTML is technically better for some reason, I just want to have the freedom to do cool stuff, and that this is the tension between those are "Flash fanboys" and those who are Standards fanboys.