I don't like the fact that bitcoins is taking the role of a central Altcoin authority "since it should all be about decentralization" but it only makes sense IMO, Altcoins are not well established and with high demand like BTC is "and hence having direct USD/Fiat to BTC channels" therefore Altcoins can only value itself on BTC value.
Some altcoins have broken from this though, from example ETH, that not only exchanged with USD through exchanges, but can also be directly bought with USD and other currencies.