No, I'd agree. I've stopped building <noscript> tags into my sites as virtually every browser supports Javascript now. If folks are smart enough to turn off Javascript they're just as capable of turning it back on.
I personally block Flash by default (mostly to stop audio ads), and I have no problem turning it back on when a site requires it.
Folks don't want to turn it on, because it's not needed for most cases and it's the perfect way (after flash and java) to get malware.
I don't know what's happening to web development, but since this app fever developers are fighting for eye candy and LESS accessibility. Sometimes I see a page that fails to work without JS, open the source and see just JS code. Where is the content? Web apps are often times also walled gardens, and completely break the functionality of the browser (based on linking, rendering text & images and using the back button).
Now even simple websites completely disable access to content just to show some silly animation.
I can't think of a way of getting malware from JavaScript anymore than from a simple link, that's just plain false.
The move to "web-page-apps" is not about eye candy, it's about speed, responsiveness and yes, usability. About not trying to awkwardly force an app down the http/html way.
A broken website/app is simply broken: if things do not work as expected, that's not the fault of webapps per se or JavaScript - it's all doable and not a big deal anymore (the back button thing).
>The move to "web-page-apps" is not about eye candy, it's about speed, responsiveness and yes, usability
No, it is about following fads, just as web development has always done. Creating sites that are slower, less responsive, and offer terrible usability is clearly not done for reasons of speed, responsiveness and usability. Enhancing a page with javascript can increase responsiveness and usability. Replacing the page with javascript is moronic.
Perhaps I should have been more clear. I'm just talking about web pages, basically just information exchange. Twitter being the example here. Browser applications are a different thing, and obviously have to be delivered in javascript. There's nothng wrong with browser applications, but pretending web pages should be built as browser applications is insanity.
I personally block Flash by default (mostly to stop audio ads), and I have no problem turning it back on when a site requires it.