I think we're beyond Flash because not only do we have the tools but we also have the experience for what works and what definitely doesn't. Flash was a good example of 'all the gear and no idea'. (I was guilty of this back in the day).
I feel designers are a lot more respectful (timid?) and aware of what they deliver now meaning these tools will hopefully be used in a more responsible way!
culture advanced, I agree, but the tools are at best on-par, surely not better.
As a kid I made my first website in flash and it was good. I did not know how to program, maybe read a single book about AS2. There where no taste-less animations, just nice, smoothed and fast pagination transitions. I was especially proud to be able to decouple animation and input, so you never had to wait for the UI to finish an animation.
Now I do a lot of front-end and CSS transitions are still a hassle (especially when you need keyframes), trying to implement material design on android might be even worse (The other day I touched about 7 files for a simple pull-down menu). And all the bodymovi animations in the link drop frames in my firefox...
Not that I'm sad about the end of flash, but flash was exciting at its time and this is just catching up.