[duskwuff]

That's too far in the other direction, IMO. The IRC protocol was a poorly designed mess. Tying yourself to it means inheriting all of its bizarre quirks and limitations, and there's very little that existing IRC servers do that would be difficult to replicate.

(For a taste of just how weird and terrible IRC can be, try to answer the question "what is the maximum length of an IRC message". If your answer is a specific number, it is incorrect.)

[AAAAaccountAAAA]

In my understanding, IRC was not designed at all. It has more like been built in an ad-hoc manner. IRCv3 is an attempt to create a clear specificatiot.