I really don’t understand the “why” here. As a toy project it’s interesting but the actual justification to actually use IRC seems to come after the implementat

I really don’t understand the “why” here. As a toy project it’s interesting but the actual justification to actually use IRC seems to come after the implementation. This isn’t derived from the stability of IRC itself but the network operators as there are many holes not accounted for. You’re not guaranteed a channel on IRC networks. A network owner may decide to remove it or, if using Services, transfer ownership if someone requests. Same for nicks and other things. I’d also be willing to bet the network operators did not sign up to host a database for free for some stranger online either.