That is what I observe too, altcoins is very far from the value of bitcoin right now. No one knows which of them will survive in the long term. If you know you can make a profit now either bitcoin or in other coins then go, if you don't, you will missed the opportunity that may not come back anymore.
Of course bitcoin is a long term player and it will survive in long term and we cannot compare bitcoins to any altcoins as bitcoin is huge and holds a huge market cap in compare to altcoins and investing in altcoins is risky as there are many shit coins available that may disappear with an blink of an eye.
The whole crypto currency area is a risky thing. But of course altcoins are even more volatile than the bitcoin is.
If I would mine altcoins, I would get reid of them as quickly as possible, regardless of the current price u get for it.
And if mining a coin does not end up profitable, it's best to switch on to the next one. There are enough of them out there.
The days are gone when you could mine huge volume of bitcoins even in a single day and at a moment very few people will prefer to go for mining as its not as profitable as it used to be in past so I think people will go either in buying bitcoins and altcoins and sell them at the right time to make good profits.