I think if you have basic knowledge of crypto and blockchain then it is easy to spot real and legit projects but what i have observed is that people get attracted to new projects and coins due to profit potential but always keep in mind the risk associated with these high risk high reward investments.
People do get attracted to new coins because they hope these coins can turn to another Bitcoin someday, investors want huge ROI to begin with, they find old coins to be costly and new coins are always cheaper, the fact is those new coins always come with greater high risks
Yes, you said true mate. All new coins got hyped and whales shows a huge profit for taped new user to get involved and they can dump on someone and take healthy profit, But some are trade smartly and take their profit within limited time frame.