I think litecoins only USP was that it was number 2 crypto and it used to be the most liquid out of all the altcoins. It was "silver to bitcoins gold". You could tell because the logo they came up with was silver while bitcoin logo was gold.
It was also lucky to be the first altcoin. Coming out just after bitcoin started getting popular. It's what started the great shitcoin flood of 2014 PND anyone? Stablecoin??
Now that it is not only less volume than Ethereum but also less market cap it's become just another altcoin out of hundreds. It's value propped up by a few stubborn bagholders. This coin is surely going the way of the dodo very quickly. As soon as china becomes fully aware of the new reality we live in.
The sensible thing to do for anyone holding litecoin would be to rapidly exchange it for ETH before your capital vanishes overnight.
Actually Tenebrix was the first altcoin.
Litecoin still have a huge userbase, and a good reputation. ETH have quite little userbase, the devs rushed it into service with a barely working infrastructure, it's reputation varying from "ICO scam from banksters" to "Holy Grail of crypto" and it will take time to settle all of these debates. ETH price is also greatly propped up by PDers as we seen for example last week.
BTW the currently low LTC price provides an excellent accumulation possibility for a later pump

. When/if BTC price goes up around the halving I'd be very surprised if we wouldn't see some big LTC pumps as well.
Namecoin came before Tenebrix.