The_Game there has been plenty of mention of IRC needing to be changed for this feature. Read through some of the messages in this thread. Also, the IRC RFC was written in 1993 and basically hasn't changed.
A feature like this will never make it into the IRC protocol. IRC is for transporting messages etc, not abstract stuff such as ASL. Features like this should be left to highler layer stuff like CTCP.
Anyway the anonymity is what makes IRC so good. It also encourages people to chat more and get to know each other (rather than going through people's profiles looking for someone your age and oposite sex).
