one of the main points of the article is that people don't check fingerprints, and that you should use encryption layered on top of IRC if you want any real privacy
To me this seems like saying a webmail site shouldn't use SSL because the recipient might also use a webmailer and happily accept a self-signed certificate and bypass the browser warning. Sure, it's no replacement for E2E crypto, but to me that's a clear case of perfect being the enemy of good.
(I just tried it)