If some developer creates something new then hey he creates a new coin.
Lets say I create something, I spend 99 days on it and its 99% complete, I release it for free. You then get hold of it, spend 1 day and finish it and release it....who deserves all the reward? You? for 1 day of work versus my 99 days?
With Bitcoin, Satoshi did those 99 days, and the altcoins I have issue with are the 1 days, yet you claim they should get reward? That's crazy.
As for not working for free, that's what entrepreneurs do, they speculate that working for free now, will pay off at some point in the future, which isn't always the case. Satoshi worked for free, he did not know that BitCoin would take off, it could of flopped...but he did, and I hope that he has a bunch of BitCoins that are now worth a lot of money as his reward for his "free" work.
There would be no Alt Coins if BTC never came to existence so no developers aren't necessarily creating anything new just recreating something existent.