It's supposed to be the juice behind distributed apps. I think it has real value, but for everyday transactions, bitcoin cash / litecoin sound more promising.
But the comment is correct: while I believe there is fundamental value here, all / most of these are open source software projects, meaning anyone can clone them, make a few improvements and launch a new coin (there are at least 4 bitcoin variants, at least that use the name "bitcoin," I can think of off the top of my head and I haven't even been paying much attention). Everyone knows bitcoin as the first, but many understand it's got some real limitations. The question is which crypto will get mostly widely-adopted, and will it be because it's better known or actually better.