I remember getting answers like these when I was in...in which I would ask something, usually to inquire about the justifications for why something was being done in a certain way (usually dumb and asinine way), and I would always get an "answer" in which they would totally deflect the question and answer something of which I was not inquiring about.
Yes, I agree, it doesn't really matter if IRR counts or not. Not what they were asking, though. I think they were asking because they wanted to see if they could do the minimum AD payback time and if they had to be on IRR afterwards or not.
I was on IRR when Covid first hit. The Navy kept asking me if I wanted to go back to active to help with their pandemic efforts. I politely declined. I heard they’ve never “voluntold” GPs in the IRR they’re coming back in. However, I do believe they did that to OMFSers in the first Gulf War.