The controversial opinions surrounding Ripple have a lot to do with the fact that the SEC lawsuit has resulted in a huge amount of publicity, so now pretty much everyone has an opinion whether or not they were interested in Ripple beforehand.
I personally don't hate it.

As a European, I have never felt inflation on my own skin as much as I do now, especially when it comes to basic grocery expenses. My country's inflation was also around 7% last year.

My preference is to either invest in well-established cryptos, or invest in both well-established and new ones. Investing in new tokens only means higher overall risks, so I would avoid that, unless you are fully prepared to deal with potentially severe losses in case things go south.

Currently I am happy with just sticking to regular cryptocurrency investing and trading. In many cases I have more trust in their long-term profitablity than that of NFT's.

I don't know a lot about cryptocurrency freelancing, but I know that there are bounty campaigns that you might be able to join. Just be careful not to get into one that ends up not paying you in the end.

The increasing value is not just due to the fact that Bitcoin is widespread - it is also because of its limited supply. It is also the oldest cryptocurrency and it is very liquid, which adds to its popularity.

Like others have said, they are backed by fiat currencies, therefore their price consistently remain roughly the same as 1 unit of the currency they are tied to, for example 1 USD. It is useful to know about them as they are a good option when you are in between trades or sell something you've been holding and want to keep your money at a stable value for some time. Using stablecoins, you don't have to switch your cryptos back to fiat money.