Well it being easy to script or not is definitely not the point. This doesn't determine anything when talking about built-in features, take $ord() as one of many examples.
About it not being applicable, these situations you mentioned are some fine examples, but they're not all. People just won't use it if it's not needed, yet other people will need it for their uses (not only IRC-related ones, BTW).
An scripted identifier would be easier than what you posted, but anyway, I can see this suggestion being used by many people without the need to be connected to each other or figure it out with their basic scripting.
So, although I don't see a real *need* for this simple feature, it's still a fair suggestion IMO.
