The only reason Bitcoin is more valuable then other altcoins is first mover advantage. It's the truth if you compare bitcoin to a lot of alt coins on the technical side Bitcoin is lacking heavily. If the Protocol was updated to do something more like a lot of altcoins do I feel this is what would truly make the Bitcoin price sky rocket.
I haven't seen any altcoins with any improvements yet. Perhaps one came along while I wasn't paying attention. Would you mind explaining which "improvement" you were thinking of?