tbh not alot of new members join chat, at least not many keep going back, tend to be a small group becaus eof that, doesn't help the its access is limited to msuk supporters only
you got to rmeember everyone who does go in there knows each other fairly well, infact most of us have met in person at this point, so at times the convosation can get quite intense or personal, etc, i think it puts most people off the idea of staying put
Chat is no different from this status bar IMO, just faster moving. Some people use it more than most, some don't even bother. Its just another part of the epic community that is MUSK-Forum