Why Bitcoin is the #1 crypto currency in the world if it's slow and expensive?

[satscraper]

How come Ripple which is the cheapest and one of the fastest ones - failed investors since 2018 and never reached back to the all time high of $3ish and those who believed in Ripple got 0 yields and a slap in the face, and yet this slow & expensive currency is the holy grail everyone is talking about?

 For same reason bronze and other metal alloys yield the palm to gold, platinum and other precious metals which are very rare and require a lot of resources to mine.

Regarding XRP, there are  rumors that it may hit $3.5 or even $5  thus don't get discouraged if you are investor in this junk.

[KingsDen]

Yes, it's the first coin ever created, but it's slow and expensive (unless you're using the lightning network which most people and businesses don't).

How come Ripple which is the cheapest and one of the fastest ones - failed investors since 2018 and never reached back to the all time high of $3ish and those who believed in Ripple got 0 yields and a slap in the face, and yet this slow & expensive currency is the holy grail everyone is talking about?

The question to why bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency in the world even as it is slow and expensive, ought to be visible even to the blind. We have to discuss it thus;

• Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency because from creation, it has been the number one 
• Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency because it has the highest volume as can only be compared by the volume of Altcoins put together.
• Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency because it is the only truly decentralized coin
• Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency because its network is well secured

It is true that bitcoin transaction is no where to be compared to that of ripple but bitcoin developers have been working modalities to make bitcoin scalable like LN, Sig wit, taproot etc

[wiss19]

Well simply because it has what other cryptocurrencies do not have which is time

bitcoin was the first ever cryptocurrency ever made let’s just say that bitcoin was not slow and expensive back then but of course time had passed and more and more people have discovered it hence increasing market activity but it’s still the #1 because it is what has proved itself against time

Time? Hhmm, that's odd. I thought time only exist for the living things like for us humans?
We don't just say, but it is actually true that BTC were fast and inexpensive in its early days. Though, the reason you have given there is correct and responsible for its change. Not just in Bitcoin but if we think about other things, they also work the same; that if more and more people are using them, there is also a slow down that happens.

And for it to have a remedy, we are required to pay a little more. People needs to start realizing this, so that they will stop complaining about the high fees in BTC sometimes, or whenever the network is fully loaded.

[YUriy1991]

And for it to have a remedy, we are required to pay a little more. People needs to start realizing this, so that they will stop complaining about the high fees in BTC sometimes, or whenever the network is fully loaded.

If it is not considered complete at this time, I think it is natural that everything is still in the development stage and the Bitcoin core is adopting SegWit, an update aimed at overcoming transaction flexibility and increasing the speed and throughput of transactions on the blockchain. Yes, exactly as you said, if more and more people use it, there will be a slowdown and that is very understandable, especially nowadays.