I think that the forks have a positive effect on bitcoins. Separating coins have improvements that the original bitcoin itself did not have and this also makes it better. That is, there is a healthy competition. If there are no plugs, then there will be no competition. There will be no competition, then there will be no motivation to improve.
I personally disagree with this argument. Forks do not have an effect on bitcoin's future. They're just doing there by themselves. Bitcoin is not linked to bitcoin forks. BCH made some speculation only, but it went down in flames.
I think having a consistent trading price of over 1200 USD is far from going down in flames. I'll agree that it hasn't, and likely won't, overtaken BTC but to say it was a complete failure is incorrect.