Exactly. A price increase does not mean the development of a project and the like. The price reflects only the investor's interest (regardless of the reason).
Sometimes increase of the price when market falls can means the market manipulations. But market manipulations cannot last a long time. If price increase for a long time it means that the demand in the tokens grows.
If, with a general market decline, some coin does not lose in price, interest in it immediately increases. A good marketing move to attract new users.
Usually investors became to attract attention to the project when it appears in top 100 for capitalization. It is really hard to track all the projects.