In his defence, its a single command, if you know the command
This, which is not uniform across servers, and has more work if you want to do certificate-based auth. Additionally getting a nick cloak is good opsec and also extremely not uniform.
I am quite used to IRC and would still always start with `/msg nickserv help` to be safe. I think the UX is okay but I wouldn't make the single command claim myself. It's similar to hopping on a unix-like machine in the wild and you don't know if you have GNU/BSD/busybox utils and there are some slight differences, so you either hope it works or check the man page quick.
To be honest, I've never encountered an IRCd where it is NOT a single command through NickServ. Setting up SASL authentication takes another single command, as far as I know. Of course, this does not involve certificate issuance through openssl command line. As for cloaking, one typically needs to ask the staffers. In Libera the process is automatic if you just want the user cloak, but let's say it's two commands: joining a channel, and saying "!cloakme" or whatever. :-) Glad to see another fellow IRCer, by the way. o/
The entire premise of cloaks as optional seems like broken UX to me. I'd like to see a new version make your connections details private by default.
Also funny watching peopel mistype the command in the wrong window and expose their "password for everything" to everyone in the chat.