If a coin introduces a completely new technology that enables a different function and is sustainable in the long term, does it have the potential to be a worthwhile investment?
There is never an easy answer to this one otherwise everyone would nail it. You really need to either do an insane amount of research or just gamble and know there is a good chance you might lose all of that investment. Start following smart people amd check our their recommendations and go from there.
Unfortunately, the majority of new coins are a complete gamble because a great number of them serve no purpose or are scam coins based on the pump and dump scheme. Generally, you'll need to read their whitepaper, see what the project's goals are, and most importantly, are they feasible, or are we talking about a panacea that can't be implemented in the real world? Are the developers organized, and is there a community that supports this project? All these questions play a vital role in determining if a new coin is worth investing in.
I'm not really into altcoins and investing in new projects because I can't bother researching if it's worth it or not; thus, I tend to stick to Bitcoin. However, Binance recently listed SEI and Cyber, both of which look promising, and I decided to involve myself in farming them. Binance also usually lists projects that aren't scam schemes, so you may want to be on the lookout for any other coins that might enter their launchpad.
The reason why Binance has fewer scam projects is because of their strict vetting mechanism but also because of the expensive fees (scam projects, maybe he doesn't need to do a scam if there's enough money -lol).