No matter what kind of awesome progress some altcoins make....it doesn't change the trend upwards if Bitcoin doesn't allow it.
Pump and dump groups I also blame. Because of them I'm very positive that Bitcoin won't make it past 30 000 this year. 50 000 to 80 000 would be realistic without pump and dump groups dominating and controlling the prices.
Anyways, these things have to change somehow. The first altcoin developers who claim their absolute freedom from Bitcoin will be the real winners of this crypto game.
This may very well change as more and more altcoins slowly becomes purchasable (and can be directly cashed out) with Fiat w/o having to go through Bitcoin, and exchanges adding other master-coins for other coins to be paired-with not just with bitcoin.