Both coins are far from ideal. Zcash with with its early distribution system is a joke.
With their slow start and mining tax devs wanted to do something to favor investors and prevent advantage of early adopters at the same time.
But they failed to realize it will make Zcash less interesting for everyone else. And ZCL is just a copy and like all clone coins it might go down very quickly.
Do not forget that Ethereum Classic was a copycat too, and look at its success now.
Good classical versions do have capability to be successful.
ZCL will eventually be added to Poloniex and it'd be the first big success of it.
Success? What success you are talking about - Current price of Ethereum: $10.5, price of Ethereum Classic $1.31
So if price 10x less that original is a success for you then yes, I suppose Zcash Classic can repeat this as well.
Prices and values do not determine the success and failure of an altcoin. They can vary time to time. Look at its volume in last 24 hours, it is among the top ten. This is its one of initial successes. With all its potential, it can cross much bigger values in upcoming years.
Reason making classics are good, IMO. ZCash has the 20% founder's fee, which is way too much. Very clear that its nothing but a scam. The value of ZEC is going downhill since its start, which clearly shows that the founder is not willing to invest even a single percent of that huge percentage. A classic version is a must in conditions like this one.
Being in the top 10 doesn't really mean it is a success to me at least. All these dapps are being done on ETH and not ETC and the real utility behind Ethereum is the dapps anyway. I don't think Microsoft cares about the cryptocurrency fork ethics of ETH and ETC, they both do the same thing in the end and all the work is already on ETH
The price is only going down because it is the most profitable one to mine for the most part. The real thing I need help understanding is how was the price so blown up when it first opened?