Yes, Chrome embeds Flash and does not use the plugin that Gruber advised how to remove. Many other browsers also use Flash from its default location and so won't show Flash, either.

Before removing Flash, I could watch the Flash plugin grow its RAM footprint every time I opened and closed a page that had a Flash ad or whatever. Eventually, Safari, and all the open windows that I load up before getting onto a plane, would crash, and I would go unproductive until I could reload my last pages.

However, it's not all smooth sailing. While Safari has not crashed on me once, Chrome DID crash my whole system not that long ago. In my case, opening a couple of videos and then selecting the window with Exposé, predictably triggers the hard crash after visual artifacts.

This is your typical Google “beta” software with alpha-quality bugs.