"Caroline huffily replied that regardless was a footless, weak word and got you nowhere, that on the other hand you threw in the word irregardless and won any argument hands down."
The problem is people use irregardless to mean regardless. The prefix ir is meant to mean not or opposite (like responsible and irresponsible). I’m scared the word is already following the path of literally when people actually me figuratively.
And inflammable? Literal is a result of very recent extended use of exaggeration, but prefix/suffix oddities are really part of the language.
In places that use irregardless, I would view it as implying it is foolish to regard as opposed to regardless which often means foolishly not heeding. The fact that "heed" is missing from my spell check might explain why new intention distinctions were needed..