As far as backwards compatibility is concerned... all the old mIRC users would see just a symbol that marks where italic begins and ends.
It's not the backwards compatibility I am bothered about. It the fact that every other client (xchat, Klient...etc...) will have to go out of their way just to incorporate something that just one client happens to use in order to maintain compatibility. Might as well start adding graphical smilies too....
This is no longer old terminal style IRC
Whilst mIRC is not a terminal client, there are still lots of terminal client users out there (myself included, from time to time). Naturally, I can only speak for myself but I don't wanna see italic-markers in the middle of lines of text. Of course, the other option would be to use a client that does support italic text. But why should I have to do that in order to keep compatibility with a client that would now be taking a dictatorship role (add this feature or become incompatible (very Microsoft-esq)) rather than its current placid role?
What I'm trying to say in a long-winded kinda way is that there is a standard which was defined by, and is still used by, terminal clients. Straying from that standard is... well... an ungood thing for everyone else as the choice would be "incorporate or face incompatibility"
