alt Hacker NewsHmm no but that's usually a good thing. I've had some late night chats where I knew all the other people around and it would not be so cool if anyone else could just join and scroll back to it.
In fact this is the reason some irc networks blocked matrix bridges at first (they now have settings to disable this)
I'm not saying mainstream people should use IRC though. Matrix is better for that.
It's situational. In a lot of contexts, especially in large public chats, being able to see history when you join is perfectly fine and good.
Telegram lets group admins choose whether members can see history from before they join, which is the perfect solution (IMO).