What makes a coin dead? I would say when it has no active nodes, no trading volume and no development, in that order. Anyone have a different definition?
Majority of the projects or coins you mentioned are just replicas of the open source code that is available and they are in to make money when they can and shut when they reach their target, make sure you understand the risk when you are investing in anything that is not listed in the top ten market cap.
My second question, why does CMC still list these coins!?!?!?
If you are shelling out money then they will list, first they will shell out money to an exchange to list their coin and then it will be listed in CMC, money talks here.