I hate flash! I’ve visited a lot of simpleviewer based galleries, and have always left well before they loaded fully. Until I have broadband access to the net, I will continue to hate flash. Prudent web designers will recognise the limitations of flash and will design a parallel site utilising non-flash technology.
Incidentally, I hate flickr for the same reason and never really visit any flickr galleries. They just seem to carry a huge overhead which seems to take forever and a day to load – SmugMug, PBase and PhotoSig (the slowest of these three) are just so much quicker.