The server-to-server part of matrix has to be convoluted because it is poperly distributed and does encrypted group communication. Obviously, if you leave out s

The server-to-server part of matrix has to be convoluted because it is poperly distributed and does encrypted group communication. Obviously, if you leave out security, you can come up much simpler protocol. Matrix has also protection again message loss, which is not in the IRC protocol. Of course, if those are not needed matrix protocol is just overly complex. The client-to-server protocol of matrix gets complex due to the large number of features matrix has. The advantage of matrix over xmpp is that those features are mandatory. Of course, somebody could still try to come up with a very minimal text client. I think there are plugins for some popular messaging clients. These days, few people are hardcore enough that they want the kind of minimal interface offered by IRC. I'm not sure matrix should offer a lot of discovery options. Just like webbrowsers don't find web pages.