Like I said dude. Keep yapping. LTC is going to Gox whether you like it or not. LTC does not need BTC. BTC actually needs LTC for security as you've already stated in your OP.
Cheers
Coblee has stated that he's going to keep Litecoin one release behind Bitcoin. How does that make Litecoin not dependent on Bitcoin

Bitcoin is testing the waters for Litecoin. In a way, Bitcoin development is more risky than Litecoin, because if BTC break due to a recent development problem, it will not affect Litecoin.
As an example, look at the last fork that happened to Bitcoin. Litecoin wasn't affected and we know how to prevent it since Bitcoin tested it before Litecoin did.