I only look for projects that have use cases in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. I have seen many real word projects either dying out or being unable to sustain for the long term.
That's a good idea actually. We don't know how good coins with real world use cases might perform but we can actually get a really good insight for the coins with crypto ecosystem usecase. For instance using DOT for cross chain interoperability is quite a unique idea.
There are several successful projects which are nothing but an upgraded version of an existing project. They have been very successful. It all depends on how effective a project is and whether is it able to solve the pain area.
Again, that's very true. Even I have noticed projects which are a better version of existing projects.
They performed really well when compared to previous projects. We just have to find out how the project is making the same thing better.