On Popup Ads and Flash Upgrades

So if popup ads are now well-known by most citizens as something that gives them the heeby-jeebies, and most ISPs and web browsers now block this, then why are web developers still so lazy to remove them from their websites? This does not compute.

And why do most of us not have any problem seeing Flash advertising on websites without having to upgrade our browser plugins, but if we want to watch a video, now all of a sudden we are more often than not told to get the latest and greatest stuff? I have Linux, for instance, and I went to Newsweek on the web. The ads were Flash-based, as was the movie of George Bush that I wanted to watch. I could view the ads just fine, but the movie I wanted to watch required a stupid plugin upgrade that I didn't feel was worth my effort. Are the proprietary multimedia companies paying kickbacks to news sites so that they force people to do this?