I understand that since altcoins are paired with BTC for trading, the price is based off bitcoin's.
However, even if an altcoin is doing well, it can tank (in terms of sats) when bitcoin's price corrects.
Will we ever see a market that isn't so heavily dependent on bitcoin? Is this possible for the future?
no, the market still desperately needs bitcoin as a reference price of all altcoin. market and bitcoin can not be separated anyhow. as long as bitcoin still has the highest value, so long as bitcoin will remain a benchmark of the price of all altocoin.