The whole point in investing in cryptocurrencies is to be lucky enough to have invested in one
No, you are missing the point entirely. Good luck though.
none of these other currencies will be able to compete with bitcoin until the market for cryptocurrencies grows significantly. how could they? there just aren't enough geeks in the world :-)
They don't exist to compete.. they compliment.
One big reason I think is behind the success of alternates is that, mentally, we don't want to deal with fractions of coins. Sure Bitcoin can be broken down to millibits, microbits, etc. but our minds gravitate to playing with variants that are just.. cheaper per whole unit.
As long as Bitcoin is a success and grows, so will the alternate coins. many will sprout up, many will die off ,until through the collective perception and usefulness of the coin, permanent alternate coins are left standing.