You could use variables with identifiers in them, like var %whois. [ $+ [ $1 ] ] = $active or something. You're right it would be a pain to code it though, with much use of brackets.
Also scripts will use the aliases without anything special. I've set one of my scripts that monitors botnet channels to use the alias.
Personally, I have the /whois echo to active. I find it much more useful that way.
What you;re asking for is doable. Just really painful.
