IRC was made a spec in 1993. Not 2003, or even 2013.
And when that RFC was made, they made strong decisions about bandwidth costs. They gave up things like federation and more.
So yeah, it's time that it's revisited in making a IRC that can be federated, multiple login/endpoints without using bouncers, and more. I welcome their new RFC. And it it doesn't work, we're free to keep what we currently have.
No, it isn't. XMPP was designed primarily as an IM protocol to replace proprietary messengers like AIM and ICQ, not as a service for group chats. It's a flawed protocol even for IM, and its conference features verge on broken. (For example: A user's visible presence in a conference is neither necessary nor sufficient for them to send and/or receive messages in the conference.)
And when that RFC was made, they made strong decisions about bandwidth costs. They gave up things like federation and more.
So yeah, it's time that it's revisited in making a IRC that can be federated, multiple login/endpoints without using bouncers, and more. I welcome their new RFC. And it it doesn't work, we're free to keep what we currently have.