You are confusing confusion with greed. It is not because people are confused that they try to grab money via an ICO investment. It is because they are greedy to the point that they are willing to give up on their value positions, aka BTC. They tell themselves that it's only for a short period of time to flip the money for the better, but in most cases it is going wrong. Some get lucky of course, but those lucky guys shouldn't be taken as a precedent for others to do the same.

There is a website listing the dead coins and as far as I can tell the website is by no means up to date. It says that a little less than 2,000 coins are dead by now, but I guarantee that number must be significantly higher. It's in the thousands for sure and it is more than 2,000 no doubt.

I would never give up on BTC holdings to get into an ICO. If anyone ever considers an ICO, rather do it with disposable income. Do not liquidate BTC as there is risk on all fronts. BTC could go up in the meantime and you lose out. The ICO (99.9% likely) fails and you lose it all. Your money is stuck because the ICO says the project launches in January but they didn't mention the specific year... you get the sarcasm. Many issues and then you are angry with yourself because you used the most precious of your portfolio to buy the biggest bullshit.