It's because the vast majority of people "into crypto" have no interest in the actual underlying asset. They're just hoping to get rich. I honestly think it destroys any potential crypto had. It's a shame because it would be good to have an alternative to credit cards for digital transactions, and especially to have a push payment method, as opposed to the pull method used by banks and credit cards

And it's not even close to private.

It dominates because it's the one that everyone knows. If you're lucky enough to find a shop that accepts crypto it's almost certain that the crypto they accept is bitcoin and bitcoin only. despite its flaws it is a proven technology. It might 3 hours to send an on chain payment but you don't have to worry about a technical glitch dropping it.

I somewhat agree about it being not great though. it has serious scalability issues that were supposed to be addressed by lightning but lightning adds a lot of complexity imo. My grandma is never going to be able to figure out how to use lightning whilst still being able to benefit from a self custody wallet.

A lot of the newer coins that crypto bros bang on about seem to be centralized under private entities, "regulation friendly" and not distributed.

i wouldn't be suprised if even Dogecoin works better that Bitcoin. then again monero is the most private

That's the beauty of crypto, there's flavour for everyone