I say this because I personally don't have a high risk appetite, so it's better to invest safely ..
how about you guys?
I am sure that when these points are followed, it will surely guard one towards the path of having a trustworthy and a reliable project. Most of the new projects that I have invested in no matter how hard we try to follow your rule number 1, one will still end up falling into a scam project, but I think that the only way to escape or avoid entering bad project is just to strictly invest in those top altcoins that you have mentioned.
The altcoins might be quite discouraging now because of their bear market, but when the bear market is finally over, I can really guarantee that those top altcoins are the coins that will rise In value far more than coins that are below in the coin marketcap. Since bitcoin will rise before these coins, they are still the best bet because as bitcoin even rises without bull run, they also rise along.
When it comes to investment it is always good to research a lot about the project and after researching whether it is good to invest or not.
Unfortunately people now a days are not taking enough time to do their due diligence. They are in rush to multiply their capital hence they are risking even with scam things. I agree whitepaper must be a good tool to decide about the future of a project still I have seen many good concept projects too getting failed due to fake team and other reasons.