I think if that were the case, Altcoins should be able to hold their own without the constant influence of Bitcoins price action which I don't see presently. If for any reason Bitcoin were to crash, trust me Altcoins will follow no question because of the assumption that Bitcoin the ultimate cryptocurrency can crash for whatever reason, then Alts can't be different.
It's not easy mate, bitcoin price will always influence altcoins.
Because bitcoin is the King of crypto currency.
when bitcoin crashes, altcoins will crash too.
I don't think altcoins will exist without bitcoin, because the people know crypto because bitcoin,
they didn't know altcoins, just bitcoin.
Talking about popularity, bitcoin is the biggestof market cap.
As you said, people didn't know altcoin, but know bitcoin.
Bitcoin is most popular than other crypto because bitcoin is the pioneer of crypto currency.
I also don't think there is potential altcoin will beat bitcoin.
But let see, I think we will see potential altcoin will compete to bitcoin at the coming years.