...the key word being "wondering". I'm not bashing anything just asking myself some questions.

How does one make proper use of the chat? Typically, there are few people connected (to be expected, that's not some gaming forum with massive active userbase) and most people who are connected actually are afk.
OK I haven't beed showing up at the busiest times. But still.
Then, people will tell you that "the coffeehouse is for light hearted conversation only" and "any serious MH related topic is to be discussed in the ES chat".
You aren't without knowing that there's barely ever anyone in that ES chat. (Even "light hearted discussions" in the main chat are scarce for that matter...)
Now when one connects to psychcentral, typically it the matter at hand is somewhat related to mental health (...) and if I want conversations completely unrelated to mental health, i know where to go and that would be some general banter or gaming forum, not psych central.

That makes me think of what the purpose of the PC chat really is. The whole website is mental health related but the chat is not because 'MH-related matters are to be discussed in the ES section', where there is typically no one. It is then de facto a MH-free chat within a MH-centered website....
Is it intentional that proper mental health-related matters virtually can't be discussed in the chat (ofc, with the exception of some few times when you're lucky and someone actually is connected and willing to) while the whole website exists so that people may discuss mental health?