The clients for XMPP are really bad. Also, matrix sells itself in a variety of ways, discord alternative, corporate usability, e2ee signal replacement, all that. Although matrix client implementations aren’t that great, the publicity does work. And IRC has historic relevance.

Yep, it should cover you alright! I use all the 5 package managers mentioned here (hence the order :p). Scriptability and post hooks in particular make it even better (cloning/copying dots, activating systemd units, other stuff, etc).