Not OP but I use IRC daily in channels like #nodejs and #elixir to get help and help others.

IRC is still very active in certain circles, though relatively few these days. Many open source projects have channels for discussion and support for example.

#blender and related, the freenode community is still very active for real time support for many projects. I think IRC still could have a great place in the world - decentralised, open, etc. The ui is just very expectant that you already know and understand the ecosystem.

Needing to know user /auth stuff happens by sending private messages to bots, and other insane hacks.

There already exist tons of high quality irc clients, so there's no reason for irc support to be high priority. I see eul's reason to exist to be more to alleviate the weight of having several low quality messaging apps open at the same time.

I use irc pls add