Put that flash away before you hurt someone with it

I've come to the conclusion today that some professional (meaning they make money from taking photos) photographers don't think. Whether it is choosing the right lens, place to stand, moment, equipment. . . the list goes on and on. However, today I came face to face with one of my biggest pet peeves, on camera flash. Now, don't get me wrong, on camera flash has its place, but if you get paid to do this work, you NEED to know where that place is.

Today was graduation, and as I was shooting some photos of the speaker, I was shocked to see other photographers hired by the school using on-camera (well, in fairness, speedlight on a bracket) flash. There was plenty of light, on a lit outdoor stage on a cloudy day, and clearly the on axis directionality of the light would not improve the dynamics of the photo.

Now for show and tell time. I was lucky enough to catch a burst of their light in one of my shots and I think the comparison backs me up pretty well.

This first image is my photo, it's no Pulitzer Prize winning shot, but it's properly exposed and accurately represents what was going on.

I labeled the parts of this next photo just in case there were any questions about what the issue is. You can clearly see that the light is not reaching the speaker, but is blowing out the podium. One question. . . why do you want to do that?

Your thoughts?