Premine: a small stake of the total economy is distributed among founders and friends or otherwise distributed arbitrarily to other people
Bitcoin was instamined (cousin of the premine) by SN. Personally, I have no problem with a premine as long as the founders are upfront about it and are transparent as to its use. For example, using it to fund activities which bolster adoption of the currency.
Am I too conservative in thinking that all of these new cryptocurrencies are doomed to fail despite their technical merits?
I think that the alts are a good thing, regardless of whether they succeed or fail. I'm thinking specifically of the ones which add something to the knowledge space, like the PoS coins, like Ethereum, like NXT. Even if they fail, they are taking risks that the Bitcoin team cannot take and they are breaking new ground, and kudos to them for doing it.
NXT in particular has potential for much wider adoption.