Good thread today at SEW on the subject of the Flash-designer portfolio set of web developers and their feelings on SEO. Glengara starts things off:

I started a thread on whether all-Flash sites should be used in the commercial web, (my premise being that using Flash elements within HTML can keep everybody happy) and it was like I'd been found molesting their mothers!

Long story short, there's seems a deep well of loathing for SEO from a substantial number of designers, and it struck me this may be part of the reason for the large PPC/SEO differential mentioned in "Why is SEO so undervalued?" over at Threadwatch.

Danny Sullivan has a great idea (as usual):

In reality, designers really need to understand that search engines are like a third browser -- and in fact a far more popular browser used by more people than using Firefox. They will spend tons of time making sure a site works for IE or Firefox, even Opera. But no time to make sure that the browsers of search engines are going to be OK with it?

Another excellent line of reasoning comes from Chris Boggs:

Web design is actually closer to architecture, than magazine cover design, in terms of accessibility. Imagine a world where architects designed buidings just to be cool and edgy - and totally ignored physical accessibility issues.....

As I noted in the thread, to me usability, design, SEO and marketing are all rolled up into web development. Removing a single element is going to result in a worse product - no one really goes out with the intention of making a worse product, do they?