All I can say is that I can watch tear-free video under Linux with Intel and nvidia drivers. I've had many machines with Intel GPUs, and they all Just Work. I have an Atom machine that I use to watch 720p H.264: it works because the video decoding can be offloaded to the Ion GPU. And it all works beautifully under Linux.
As for Skype and Flash, what is the Linux community expected to do? They are both proprietary: there is nothing "Linux" can do to make them work better.
Recently, there've been periods of time stretching up to a couple of months after a new Intel chip with integrated graphics comes out where the don't have the drivers ready yet, or they're still pushing them into the kernel, or the distros haven't updated to new kernels yet. Trying to use brand new Intel chips during those periods is frustrating, but the problem just goes away by itself after a little while.
As for Skype and Flash, what is the Linux community expected to do? They are both proprietary: there is nothing "Linux" can do to make them work better.