Justin --
I find it interesting that you find xchat hard to use and irssi easy, however I think it's fairly simple to register a nickname in freenode (and, I'm assuming, in other IRC servers) since the registration process, as far as I know, works the same whether you're in xchat or irssi.
After connecting to freenode -- /connect irc.freenode.net -- using the nickname you would like to register, type
/msg nickserv register $YOUR_PASSWORD $YOUR_EMAIL
(where $YOUR_PASSWORD is the password you create and $YOUR_EMAIL is, well, your e-mail address)
And essentially, that's it.
I think if you go to /msg nickserv help register you can get more information.
I don't know if this story is going to change any policy or anyone's
mind on the matter, but I really wish we would change this policy to
make it easier on new (even brand new) users and on ambassadors.