Re flash -- the impact of the lack of flash will vary according to one's tastes. I have flash blocker installed even on my pc. I can click to see the occassional flash video, but for most of the time, I'm quite happy to surf flash free.
And I'm not being locked into browsing only on the iPad. I'm on my laptop 8 to 10 hours a day as it is, plenty of opportunity to visit flash sites
Lee