A buddy list?! In IRC?! That defeats the whole idea of what IRC is. If you want buddy lists, go use IM. IRC and IM are NOT the same thing and should not be.
If you want ugly (my opinion) eye candy next to the nicks, get a script that does that. If you want a buddy list, get a script that does that... there have to be some out there. But don't have it as part of mirc.
IRC is a multi-network , multi-channel system and the way IRC (not mirc) is set up, checking for "buddies" (always hated that word... sounds like I'm in kindergarten) online requires you to be on the network they are on... unless you're using one of the programs that can scan the networks without being connected... which isn't worth using. If you're on IRC to chat, then you probably have various channels you go to. Just auto-join those channels, and you'll see who is online. And, if you really can't look in a nick list, use /notify.
Just keep IM out of IRC. It does not belong there.
