I honestly don't think Apple set out to kill flash. They just chose to not support Flash, like they also don't support a bunch of other browser plugins. All of them, in fact.

Had others not made such a big fuss about it, Apple's mobile devices would simply silently not support Flash. But everybody made such a big stink about it so they had to vocally explain their motivations for not supporting Flash specifically, making Apple some kind of Flash opponent.