I find the last point mentioned by cedric to be extremely interesting.  Success could simply be through greter network adoption. In a way, thats why windows is the biggest OS despite its security flaws and apple iphone is the best selling smartphone, despite there being better alternatives out there. 

And a lot can be done by other coins to increase adoption. Even if people are misinformed about bitcoin being too expensive at  $8000 and therefore choose something cheaper like ripple that is sub $1, or people may prefer ripple because it works well with banks in the future and people just end up trusting banks more than a decentralized system. Through clever marketing, people can be made to believe and trust dictators and vote in a certain way. Xvg could be in the top 5 after yesterday's announcement, who knows!