Few of the ones mentioned above are in the ICO stage though. Only EOS? All the other ones are out of ICO stage.
I used to mine from home with my home-built miner in 2013/2014, and agree it's pretty cool to mine as opposed to buy. However, energy costs and hardware breaking down made it so I couldn't compete unless I mined at a loss in the hopes of making gains from future price growth. Nowadays there is cloud mining alternatives, but as far as I can tell it takes quite a while to get a good ROI and as always, mining difficulties adjust and create variables that I don't like. With mining I feel like if you put in $1000 it will take you a while to earn $1200, but with trading you can put in $1000 and turn it into $1200 next week if you're smart.

I think Bitcoin is like gold yes, but Ethereum is more like oil/fuel. I think the term crypto_currency_ is misleading because only the first generation blockchains like Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc. are intended to be used as a kind of currency. Second generation, like Ethereum, is more like a platform than a currency, and third generation blockchains (DAPPs) are indeed like owning shares of a business (or infrastructure).

I like that though. Can't wait until fourth generation, or maybe the governance-crypto's are the fourth generation already.