Yeah, it sucks. They turned into stocks the second exchanges showed up. The worst part is there are good projects out there like Monero but nobody really cares because price doesn't go up.
I can't sign off on any cryptocurrency being a "good project" unless I can easily exchange it for goods and services. I haven't found a single cryptocurrency that qualifies, including monero.
I got paid for my services in Monero once. It was a great experience, I wish all money worked that way. Unfortunately I had to sell it for USD because of the price fluctuations.
Not to mention that using a lot of these altcoins are likely to put you on some FinCEN watchlist, if it ever gets traced back to you
Which is why everyone should use it. What good is a watchlist if everyone is on it?
It's a chicken and egg problem. Who's going to stick their neck out long enough for "everyone" to get in on it?