We have no idea what the substrate is, if there even is one. With regard to the bytecoin development community, so far I've seen one fix from monero get pulled back to bytecoin, and little if anything going in the other direction. If there are stores, exchanges, etc. for bytecoin, then let's hear about that. Failing that, there is no substrate. It is all a mirage.
But like you I am mining both and taking a wait and see attitude. I think monero has just a whole lot more legitimacy and transparency at this point, and that counts for a lot. Just the fake cicada 3301 references are enough to convince me there is an element of scam to bytecoin, but those could possibly done by someone with no real connection, so we can't be sure. It smells bad though.
If bytecoin is a scam, then it's a damn elaborate (and frankly, elegant) one. More likely BCN is a very distributed network that "smells bad" not because of suspicious "premine" activity, but because of the nature of its usage. The developers know that an anonymous currency such as BCN must first succeed in the markets where it is necessary. That is why they are so secretive. They do not want to be linked to the abhorrently evil shit that BCN is used for on the deep web (and you know exactly what I'm taking about).
I don't know "exactly what you are talking about." so please, explain, what "evil" things are talking about???