the IMCR is not that and was never intended to be an IR in disguise. It was designed to be a get you out of trouble rating for inadvertant entry into IMC conditions.
That's one person's assertion, not backed up by anything. Yawn. You may as well start quoting GASIL or GASCO or some other rag. Anyway, what relevance is there is what somebody intended back in the 1960s? The full IR was a piece of cake back then, too, with various grandfather / self improver routes.
I personally know of several IMCR IMC fatal accidents and there are scores more.
I went to a CAA/EASA presentation Feb 2008 and they reported that they are aware of just one fatality of an IMC Rated pilot while exercising the privileges of the IMC Rating. This is since the introduction of the Rating c. 1969.