I strongly disagree with this post.
First of all, Charlie Lee's opinion being the foundation for investment advice on steemit is disappointing. Litecoin is fundamentally the same thing as bitcoin created for the purpose of creating an ASIC resistant consensus mechanism (which failed quickly). Now the major difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is block time, that's it.
Bitcoin is also much more centralized than people understand and not practical as a global currency with its current transaction times and fees. Bitcoins value solely relies on consumer confidence which is driven by the opportunities opened up by blockchain technology.
If you chose your altcoins carefully, you can invest in something that is useful and has a reason for demand to increase. My page gives technical explanations of some of the few altcoins that are likely to have increased demand and price overtime.
Of course if you don’t want to research a bunch of coins or make investments based off the opinion of others, Bitcoin is fine. I just think altcoins provide more opportunity to those who do their homework.
I think his advice is mostly targeted at new investors entering the space. Ones that likely don't have the technical knowhow to do the kind of DD you are talking about here. For that reason, telling them to buy bitcoin before they buy anything else makes a lot of sense. You may be right though that you could in theory build a solid portfolio without any BTC exposure. Though, I am in the camp that believes BTC will be one of the major players for a long time. Whatever it lacks in tech currently, there will be ways to upgrade/update it.
Fair point jrcornel. I am clearly biased in the favor of altcoins, but for new investors buy and hold with bitcoin is a safe strategy.