Like 5 min block updates vs 10 min block updates? Or a different mining algorithm? Or a different coin limit? All things that are less than 1% different than BTC and that make no difference in the real world. Moreover, even if they did matter Bitcoin could adopt any of these "improvements" and update the protocol.
If you follow any of this at all you will notice that the gap between BTC and alt coins has only widened the last 6 months. Alt coins matter much less while Bitcoin matters much more.
Moreover... it's not about Bitcoin. It's about cryptocurrencies. Let Bitcoin get replaced by another alt coin. It's cryptocurrency that is here to stay. Whether or not the leader remains BTC matters very little, but the data shows that Bitcoin is growing while alt coins are fading. People shouldn't be excited about the price of Bitcoin, they should be excited about the utility of it.
Human and Bonobo Ape DNA code is 99% similar yet we're very much different. So 1% can make all the difference. So what if altcoins reuse tons of code from bitcoin. This '1% difference in code' line must be a new pro-btc talking point or something. I know many pro-btc groups just huddle together and tell each other why they've made a great investment hoping to alleviate each other's fears.
Block update times make no difference in the real world? You've got to be kidding. I think they do, and I'm guessing more would agree with me - those who aren't already highly invested in BTC that is.
Also, not all altcoins are going down compared to btc. I heard ripple is kicking btc's ass and went up the entire 2014 year unlike btc.
But you are right that btc could adopt improvements if they wanted to. But this is also the reason btc is not the anti-inflationary money that many hoped it would be. At any point the code can change based on the politics of the programmers and they can inflate it or do whatever they want with it. Btc code changes are implemented based on a democratic system of fallible programmers unlike gold/silver which doesn't give a shit about human emotions, political fads, ideologies, etc.
But if you only care about crypto's surviving and changing the world, not necessarily btc, then you might be on to something. I just hate the idea that people might always have to be looking for the next-best-thing and changing their currency all the time.
Also there's always the possibility that btc will overcome all I've said and be #1 crypto for 100 yrs. If so grats on your speculation.