Actiually, a lot of irc clients are identifying opers by contrasting colors in their nicklists - including a lot of the java clients floating around out there.
I'm not sure of the mechanism they're using - it could be /userhost or /who - but the ability to identify an oper quickly and easily has merit.
The opers that go undercover and have the ircd turn off their id just don't want it to be known, for their own reasons, and there's no reason for the client looking at them to try and crack through the mask.
One thing it *would* do is cut down on the instances of some dweeb trying to pass himself off as an oper in order to play silly games.
Make mine a *real* strong recommendation.
