I'm really not sure why there's a million alts being developed. Surely the best way to move forward with crypto currency would be for everybody to get behind the one to get it into the mainstream. At the moment it's Bitcoin. Can somebody explain to me why there's a need for any more than one?
The mastercoin protocol being developed may answer your question. Mastercoin is an alt that is being developed that has many features that both alts and BTC so far have not been able to offer. Namecoin's story is similar in that it wasn't just an alt for speculation and a knock off of BTC. but sometimes I wonder if anyone is actually working on namecoin anymore.
Your very right though. There are a bit too many alts and most of them are redundant.