Yes. The authoring tool was the brilliance of flash. It allowed non-coders to make interactive things really easily.
Anyone whose made an Instagram filter or TikTik effect recently - it was like that, though even easier, but allowing you to do actual coding right down to very low level stuff should you desire.
and you could get push your creation to any screen in the known universe with essentially zero testing.
That program shaped my brain in ways I can't articulate. Took things I learned about computers and animation as an 11yo for granted as basic knowledge.
The flash runtime was pretty efficient but the authoring tools were so easy to use that anyone could produce "working" abominations filled with the most good awful code that got the result they wanted.
Anyone whose made an Instagram filter or TikTik effect recently - it was like that, though even easier, but allowing you to do actual coding right down to very low level stuff should you desire.
and you could get push your creation to any screen in the known universe with essentially zero testing.