I don't care about the 8259, I don't see why anybody should care except PIC driver programmers, it's doubtful anybody designing NT cared given the very first architecture it was design against at was not a PC, and this is typically the kind of thing that goes through the HAL.

IRQL is a completely software abstraction thing, in the same way top/bottom halves and various threads are under Linux (hey, in some version of the Linux kernel it even transparently switches to threaded IRQ for the handlers, there is no close relationship with any interrupt controller at this point...). IRQL is shit because most of the arbitrary levels it provides are not usable to distinguish anything continuously from an application point of view (application in the historical meaning, no "App" bullshit intended here), even so in seemingly continuous areas (DIRQL), so there is no value in providing so many levels with nothing really distinguishing between them -- or at some level transitions too many things completely different. It's even highly misleading, to the point the article you link is needed (but does not even provide the whole picture.) I see potential for misleading people with PIC knowledge, people used to real time OSes (if you try to organize application priority by basing on IRQL, you will miserably fail), people with background in other kernels, well, pretty much everybody.