How come original and promising projects like Chainlink,Cardano not gettin popular ?

i am just following those coins for year,i am not into crypto coins that much but i m thinking buying some chainlinks for long term hold(i got some in 2 day ago's market collapse) but i am just suprised they just not moving up further for all this time..they were one of the coins i thought promising but all i see some random coins gettin popularity and when search them,mostly they dont promise anything.i might be wrong tho,thats why i wanted to ask in here….. Why i have to do 500 characters man