Do you mean, merge all FreeBSD-related channels (linked from multiple pages in the wiki)?
Basically yes, there are 20 official channels listed, even more unofficial ones.
Separate channels were useful when activity was higher than nowadays I suppose, but realistically today with the lower activity it feels completely inappropriate and overkill.
You have to open multiple channels in the hope to see few "real" messages.
So yes scaling down the channel number would not hurt IMO, I think 1 or 2 channels with a bit of activity would be better than 20 silent channels.
Of course there are A LOT of people online but how many of them are just connected through a bouncer? Should we consider this as real activity?
I have nothing against bouncer though, but referring to people online isn't a relevant statistic with IRC since you can use services to monitor channels.
If people have to wait hours or day/s to get a response they just move to the forum which is more appropriate, and IRC channels remain inactive, yep we run in full circle.
I also have that experience, but I thought it is because the client does not work, a technical problem.
I think a lot of users share the same experience and sadly that just push them away.