Seems like Waves is gaining more attention recently. According to developer activities, it is one of the top platforms in this aspect (https://github.com/wavesplatform1, https://github.com/PyWaves) which is pretty impressive. Their 2018 roadmap is also looking great and it is overall faster and easier to launch a token on than Ethereum: https://hackernoon.com/waves-waves-your-blockchain-token-in-one-minute-9733dfef98c8. I think Waves is already a big competitor to Ethereum and will be even more so when their turing complete smart contracts are done (end of 2018). It am currently loading up on Waves as I believe it will do at least a 10x this year.
I do have waves also and support waves assets too.
You are right, I am trying to study blockchains and waves is on the first 5.