The reason some people, including myself, like to do things like email or irc or whatever inside emacs is because we got hooked on the powerful text and buffer

The reason some people, including myself, like to do things like email or irc or whatever inside emacs is because we got hooked on the powerful text and buffer management facilities in emacs, and want them everywhere, and consistently. All these things we're talking include editors in their separate applications. They just use the default OS editor widget using CUA bindings or whatever. Pulling them into emacs turns that on its head, and brings with it all the power (and weirdness) that comes with that. It's not for everyone, but it's also not something that it's fair to make fun of or dismiss outright. In the end, what the emacs nerds are doing is remaking the world of Lisp machines, but compromised and/or modified for the environments we have now. Not everyone digs that. I kind of do.