I come from a time when IRC servers (inside each network, Freenode being one) were usually sponsored by universities, ISPs, foundations, etc. This mindset of "competitors" and business cost of hosting some IRC chatter as if it's on a 2021 datacenter scale is quite frankly absurd.

I doubt there are more IRC users now than in 1997, and in 1997 no one would care if an efnet channel linked to a dalnet channel.

My $0.02.