 Given that there are only ~430 people in the Kubuntu forums and if  contrasted against the 1000's of Kubuntu downloads, I would say skip IRC. As for torrents (and IRC's), anyone savvy enough to employ such tool are typically savvy enough to install either as needed.
[11:17] <mparillo> KDE Frameworks 5.85 landing in II. Kinfocenter still reporting 5.84.
[11:22] <mparillo> But even these partial upgrades do not seem to make II unstable for me.
[12:30] <BluesKaj> Hi all
[17:06] <Mamarok> I am with valorie here, IRC is a must, especially regarding bad bridging with Matrix and the desastrous reputation of Telegram. Any Free Software enthousiast should stay away from the likes of Telegram, Messenger etc.
[19:48] <valorie> unfortunately we don't have good help coverage in #kubuntu for the past year or two
[20:19] <RikMills> valorie: that was part of my thinking. having the client there by default implies on some level that support via IRC should be good
[20:35] <mparillo> Good, compared to what alternative? I recall https://www.kubuntuforums.net/ having problems fighting spam and for a long time, people found it difficult to register there. KDE forums are not responsive to user questions in my experience.
[20:36] <mparillo> Sure, more than half the problems are really not Kubuntu-specific, so #ubuntu or askubuntu should apply.