Popups are a bit different to the function provided by a status bar though. I'm not saying you are wrong, I actually like (and write my own) popups and use them all the time.
Back to the status bar issue, what does a status bar do? Provide information. Yet in mIRC's case, and also Bersirc, the information provided by the status bar, such as your name, the active channel the network, etc are already provided in other parts of the GUI. While I am not necessarily against the idea providing it can be turned on and off at will, having the info repeated again in another part of the GUI just doesn't make sense. It's no different to websites that provide more than one set of navigation links. It's a waste of resources.
If you look at web browsers there will probably come a time where the status bar in them is not required either as the webpage itself often (and indeed should) provide most of the information the IE status bar repeats, such as where a hyperlink leads to via "title" or "alt" attributes, though the progress bar does sooth the onslaught of impatience I would concede.
Back to mIRC though, unless the starter of the thread could explain what the status bar can display that is not already displayed somewhere then I wouldn't be all that fussed over whether it is included or not.
