Bitcoin faucet also paid out a lot more when they started. The difference between now and then is this :
~ There are millions of Bitcoin users now.
~ Bitcoin has increased in value
~ Early adopters mined a lot more coins and they were more willing to dish it out, because the value was low.
~ The goal of faucets then, was to increase adoption, now it shifted to a income potential for poor people.
~ There are also lots more faucet sites now, and a standard payout has been set by the bigger faucets.
The Alt coin faucets are now in the early Bitcoin stage, where they need to make bigger faucet payouts to increase adoption.