More than any other piece of nonsense advice, I get annoyed about the directive to eliminate the verb "to be".

That verb is fundamental to English and various other languages. It's irregular in almost every language because it's so vital and used so frequently for so many things. Don't stop using it.

Without this verb, a whole host of things are made much more difficult or impossible: expressing states, existence, time, the weather, ownership, half of the tenses. Removing it is genuinely idiocy.

The advice given here is by someone who doesn't even know that the four examples they list

is, are, was, were

are all the same verb. It's like saying 'My two favourite verbs are "cooking" and "cooked"'. It's the same verb, not four separate ones, and if you don't know that, then you shouldn't be giving advice on the topic.

Don't get rid of the verb "to be". Get rid of any other verb before it. Using a fundamental common verb doesn't result in "flat, dead prose", but in effective communication. The verb blends into the background like other basic building blocks - "said", for example. This advice is the equivalent of telling you to always use "questioned querulously" as a dialogue tag. Which would be verbose, pretentious, awkward, and stupid. Just like getting rid of this verb.

I'm not, I hasten to add, suggesting that you should only use this verb, eschewing all others. That would be ridiculous. And it is perfectly possible to overuse it, starting each sentence with "I am..." or "There is...". But that overuse is generally a weakness of your sentence structure, not your verb choice. Switch that up and your problems will magically disappear.

By all means, use all the other verbs you wish, but don't stop using this one. Don't try and stamp it out, because that will make you and your writing awkward and annoying.

Ignore anyone who tells you to stop using "to be". They don't know what they are talking about. Go tell a programmer to stop using "=", go tell a mathematician the same - you will be ignored.

There's a lot of writing advice floating about online and in books and coffee shops. Some of it is good, some of it harmless, some of it incredibly obtuse. It can be difficult to work out which is which. This one is the obtuse kind, misdiagnosing a problem and picking the worst possible tactic as a solution. It is like treating a headache by cutting off your feet.