Quote from: Macro Exchange on Today at 02:03:16 PM

But Bitcoin dominance remains above 60% and shows no signs of dropping.

That is not dominance, that is market cap ratio. It is computed by dividing bitcoin's market cap by the sum total of thousands of altcoins' market caps. The only thing that it shows is that there are so many shitcoins in the market, nothing else about trends or anything like that.

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Even ETH.BTC looks weak- altcoins just can't gain momentum, not even in relative terms.

Shitcoin pumps work something like this:
1. First phase (moderate pumps): when they are introduced initially they get some moderate sized pumps
2. Second phase (a big pump): when they gain popularity and a lot money is injected into the shitcoin. This is the biggest pump they experience in their lifetime
3. Third phase (little to no pumps): this is the final phase where people move on to other and newer shitcoins so this one has a hard time getting the same big pumps as before.

ETH is currently in the third phase. As a shitcoin, it had its pump pump (second phase) back in 2017 when it reached 0.15BTC but ever since that pump, it has been going lower and lower (currently 0.02BTC).
In this phase (3rd) they can only pump it a little because people are no longer interested in this shitcoin and they prefer newer shitcoins that are in their 1st and 2nd phases that can give them the highest profit.

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Is there any real reason to focus on altcoins right now while BTC still controls the market?
Or will ETH just keep following BTC lead without any independent strength?

ETH will continue going down in the long run.
But the real question is what is your objective? If you are a day trader in this market, then altcoins are still a viable option since they are still getting pumped and dumped which can be profitable. You just have to learn to find the pumps and stop wasting your time bag-holding shitcoins hoping for a pump that may never come.