[ocdtrekkie]

This is true. Even the old school of IRC could be wrapped in a nice client, and some formatting tricks could be used to denote rich features. Content that needs to be uploaded to be shared could be uploaded and the URL could be included in the message, so regular IRC clients could click over to see them.

[dystroy]

A chat like Miaou wouldn't really make sense with a lesser protocol. People come to Miaou to be sure no ping is ever lost, that the guy in front of them can directly see the game in progress, that the external proven identities are displayed before entry in private rooms (Miaou is mostly used today to coordinate game teams), that other users correctly see the tabular data being shared (or that they can edit in place the whiteboard), etc. The common set of enhancement is what makes Miaou, not something that can be progressive.