Unless the dev team have any major plans for new features, I can easily see more dynamic projects like Dash, Bitshares, Maidsafe and Monero surpassing Litecoin within the next year or two.
New features? Development? I don't think you'll be getting those anytime soon.
To make matters worse, the developer's "boss" has made it clear that anything altcoin is a "no no".
This was a message heard loud and clear by all Coinbase staff. I honestly would have quit my job the same day he made that tweet.
That's what I figured. I get that merchant adoption and liquidity are important, but at the same time, you still have to get people to notice that you exist. Litecoin is failing completely at that right now. They can't grow their userbase if they aren't doing anything to get people's attention. And if the userbase shrinks (which seems a far more likely outcome than growth) then they're going to have less liquidity and merchants aren't going to waste their time supporting a coin that no one uses. It just sounds as though they want to do nothing and ride on Bitcoin's coattails.