I know we have had this disagreement before but I still believe I saw better deals in the flash sales and I confirmed it with historical pricing on a few games. Also was is it really that hard to look at your phone once every 8 hours? It gave me something to look forward to three times a day instead of check it once and forget it.
Yes it is because during the holidays I'm quite likely to not be checking steam for sales that often. I don't use my phone for that and even if I did, you can be busy and not caring about games. If you miss a flash sale you wait until the end of the sale anyway. I will grant that it seems like the deals aren't as good as they once were but we're also seeing more deals quicker for various reasons.