I recently shifted some focus from Bitcoin to altcoins. In the beginning, I chased hype and it didn’t go well. The times I did better were when I slowed down, read about the project, and made my own decision instead of following noise.
It feels like patience pays more than hype-chasing in this space.
There's nothing wrong with what you went through since you are in a research stage.
Now that you have been able to experience being in different scenarios, you will determine some other ways that might work for you. Shifting gears is normal as there are different trends in a market. Just build experience as you progress.