If people want to see unicode characters, they should be using a unicode font rather than hoping that everything shows up properly on a non-unicode font. That's his point and it's a good one. Rather than forcing software to a lot of extra work that is not necessary, people should just use a font that doesn't require any extra work. Also, there are many unicode fonts out there as he pointed out... not just a few.
Also, remember that mIRC is not the only client out there. mIRC has font linking, but do all the others? Probably not. So you already have a lot of people who are likely seeing even LESS of what you're typing if they aren't using an appropriate font.
So the real fix isn't software, but font. If you use unicode, then use a unicode font. And the same for everyone else as well. Doing so will prevent such problems for you and them and cuts down on resources required to link fonts for you/them just to be lazy and avoid those fonts. And, if you just get rid of the fonts that are not implemented well (they "lie" about what characters they have), you'd solve the problem as well. Better to support only the well-made fonts than the ones that aren't.
