It's not absurd. First of all I've been using immutable Linux for 3 years so running Irssi in a container makes the most sense. Of course I'd probably just run it inside a distrobox container instead. And also I've been using a shell server for irssi for many years so it's not that relevant.

But secondly, containerization, despite its vulnerabilities through the years, does add a layer of security to applications. And we must not forget that irc clients have been exploited in the past. Remember the old adage, never irc as root.