The "cheapness" of a coin isn't given just by its price. You must calculate (price X noOfCoinsThatExists).
If everything else equal (in particular the total amount of money ($) "in" the system):
Coin A has price $1, and 100 coins exist.
Coin B has price $10, and 10 coins exist.
Total value = $100, for both.
Unless you have more information there is no reason to think there is a greater probability coin A will increase 10x than coin B will increase 10x. The amount of new money required into the coin would be the same in both cases.
So the probability A will go to from $1 to $10 is the same as the probability B will go to $10 to $100. in both cases an additional $900 in new money is needed.
Yes, exactly.
Price of an individual coin is irrelevant. You need to look at marketcap. Also if investing long-term, look at current circulating supply vs maximum potential supply.
The coins that increase x100 or x1000 are likely to be the coins with small marketcap, not the coins with small individual coin value. And obviously this is offset by risk - these are also the coins that are more likely to fail, more vulnerable to pump+dump, and harder to trade due to small trading volumes.
My approach, and probably the approach for many people, is to put most in higher marketcap coins that already have a decent track record, and then a smaller amount in more speculative coins that look promising.