It seems like you're only considering the importance of Altcoins in terms of profit rather than delving into their underlying platform and real use case—how they contribute to the long-term development of this market. If you only look at profit, I think Altcoins may or may not matter; there are countless other Altcoins to replace them.
However, if you consider the platform and practical applications, it's a different story. Take Ethereum, for example. Imagine what would happen if there were no Ethereum one day—the impact on the market at this moment is something you can probably imagine if Ethereum were to collapse. In my opinion, that's the real significance of an Altcoin, not just how much its price increases.
You have a point but realistically most people only care about how something may benefit them, so while a coin like ethereum has been essential as it has allowed the birth of many other coins, which have also become influential on their own right, they do not care as the profits that can be had with ethereum are not as high as what you could have gotten before.However, if you consider the platform and practical applications, it's a different story. Take Ethereum, for example. Imagine what would happen if there were no Ethereum one day—the impact on the market at this moment is something you can probably imagine if Ethereum were to collapse. In my opinion, that's the real significance of an Altcoin, not just how much its price increases.
This is in fact very similar to what we see with bitcoin as well, in which many newbies decide to ignore it, even if it is the best coin on the market and the one that allowed it to exist to begin with.
