All your points are valid even if they don't change my view. But, I'll comment on this last part.
As it happens, I find that filesharing channels are the most popular, followed by ones that talk about a popular subject such as music/tv, followed by general chat, followed by programming, and finally scripting. Then you get others that aren't really worth a mention. Obviously I've missed ones out in between, but I'm just giving a rough idea of the popularity of general chat vs. other subjects.
Filesharing being the most popular, you can wipe out those from the list using video/voice. Music/TV mostly wouldn't either unless the channel is really a chat channel about Music/TV (which would fall lower on the scale than a general chat) or if a "star" is there. General chat could depending on the people. I still believe firmly that it's not a big percentage even within this bracket, though it would be the biggest percentage bracket of all of them. Programming and scripting generally won't use it either. Perhaps voice if it's general help. If it's actual scripting, writing it down so it can be copy/pasted is easier and works better, so those situations wouldn't use it. So really, from that list (It probably is missing things, but I'm not sure what right now), the only real place you'd find use of those features is general chat, which as you pointed out is not at the top of the list of popular channels.
And, yes, I know people frequent multiple channels of different types.
Either way, I doubt either of us will convince the other about the number of people we believe will use the feature. I don't mind it being added if it's optional, so we really don't need to debate it since we both agree that it's fine to add as long as it's optional. (Just trying to avoid an endless debate when we both agree about the main part-- being added or not)
