Even the legit one are crumbling down. So those who have invested on these "legit project" are still at a lost. So we cannot say that OP's statement is not legit at all, 50% is true and the other are not.
the most successful method of making profit in altcoin market has always been pump and dumping altcoins and that is still successfully going on.
you just have to not get stuck in old already-pumped altcoins, if you want profit.
Even pump and dump have their victims so you can say it is a profit for some and a lose for many. We cannot say that is a successful one.
I agree with OP's ideal. Change is the only thing that is permanent so we need to be able to adjust and adapt to what is coming. It only mean one thing, there is no stopping on learning everything that happen inside the crypto industry.