The media has been covering alts. Every time they cover an ICO they are talking about it. Compared to the past (which was zero) almost any coverage is a big improvement.
ERC20 coins are so easy to create that it makes it super-simple to scam or collect funds quick and easy.
Hopefully the ERC20 coin fad will die and we will start to see some more dev on the Eth chain itself or we'll see more technology built on top of things.
Since everything is open-source, can't anyone just re-use the code anyways?