Difference between private chats between users and a channel is that private chats just send messages to users and you have to create and admin a channel. I was looking for something more user friendly than having to create and admin channel before you can chat.
Creating a channel means
/join #blahblah - that wasn't exactly hard. There's no "admin'ing" required, just set maybe +ni and then /invite the users you want to be a part of the discussion - not really any different from inviting users to group chats in IM's (from what I remember).
