Btw, what new IRC clients support smileys?
Klient nor HydraIRC support them. Those are fairly new, and have a long way to go, and are far more 'updated' than mIRC in terms of how it works.
Please, point some out to me.
Why are you banging on about smilies so much. They were only mentioned as one possible use of image support. Yet you have singled it out. There are indeed other clients that support emoticons - And the point is that there existence shoots down your arguement of technical barriers.
mIRC isn't just your IRC client. Lot's of people have requested this, And It would not affect you if it was added, As no doubt it would be disabled by default.