Acutally you may have not opened that port by default and if you get no more than 8 connections then it seems that it isn't open so i don't know why you're claiming that it has to be opened and that you wouldn't be connected.
Because:
1) the P2P port is always open by default (it has to be, that's the point of a decentralized currency)
2) port 8333 is bitcoins default port, not a random alternative coin
3) having 8 connections per node is enough to make a strong network without overloading any specific node
I didn't mean any offence, rather I was trying to also help somebody who wanted to support crypto's in a non financial way, as you were.
Can we try and keep it as helpful as possible for those reading