This is exactly why I think alt coins are good for bitcoin. These innovative ideas can at any point be adapted to work with or even imported into the bitcoin protocol. I don't know enough to comment on the technical side of this, but the idea behind ethereum is quite good.
Totally agree. While most new coins are purely scams or shady, some get released that could potentially be added to the Bitcoin protocol, or add tot he value of Bitcoin and its future market, such as decentralized marketplaces like BitBay.