[BenLloydPearson]

It's been years since I used/administered IRC, but I also think there are common misconceptions about what IRC actually is. At it's core, IRC is an incredibly basic tool, and most of the end-user features come from layering additional services on top of IRC, both at the client and server levels. These services can be pretty complex and cumbersome to manage, and in my opinion, never quite seem to solve the problem exactly. Persistent chat history is certainly the most glaring example.

At the risk of becoming a meme, it's similar to how practically nobody uses Linux alone; it's almost universally accompanied by something like GNU.