I do not know why you were down voted, but I fully agree with you.

I do not want to see pictures in IRC at all, you want pictures, movies etc, got to one of the many pointy-clicky apps. Or you can PM and send the pic to the person who wants it via email.

No history, good for me, but you want history enable logging in your client.

User authentication - maybe a bit harder for new people, but you also have the option of turning on encryption if you want.

One missing item, with cloaking, you can have anonymity which is lacking in all the other "apps".

I see no need to change IRC at all, and I think the Freenode "owner" tried to change it and a revolt happened. Just about everyone moved to Libera chat.