You are right, in the end Bitcoin will always be Bitcoin and ALL others including Bcash/Bitcoin Cash will always be "altcoins".
As for the potential that Bitcoin Cash has because of the backers, only time will tell. There is too much animosity in the community against Ver, Wu and Zhuoer for their creation of Bcash/Bitcoin Cash so this coin will only survives as long as those whales push it. After they lose interest the price will drop back down to what it was at time of the fork.