Majority of altcoins are centralized and have no new ideas, they just rehash the same old ideas over and over with a new name and new advertisements. This is why they don't have real potential and any "opportunity" is just short term profit making at a very high risk.
It looks like new Alt coins are launched with aim of just grabbing investors money. Now we have hundreds of thousands of alts in the market and it's natural that worth of alts has to go down due to so many alts circulating in the market. Moreover Alts are launched with claim of novelty and innovation but majority of them failed to deliver that or are either abandon by founders soon after the fund raising phase is completed.
Even when altcoins are launched they claim they can rival Bitcoin with their innovations, but in reality many don't last long. Indeed altcoins are launched solely to generate profits for a select few investors and developers, while others experience losses.
So in my opinion if you ask whether altcoins offer opportunities and risks, the answer depends on the individual and their trading management. The opportunity is potentially high if you can capitalize on the opportunity. The risk is certainly greater due to extreme volatility and low liquidity, which can lead to the demise of projects. Therefore if you want to capitalize on altcoin opportunities, you must maximize profits and minimize risks by conducting thorough research and managing risk with strategies such as setting stop losses.