Fundamentally I don't see why LTC needs to exist next to btc, its a mere copy with faster block times.
To me this says why do we need BTC. Honestly being first doesn't mean it has a place with higher fees and slower blocks. Personally I prefer to move money around in LTC over BTC. I also like to take advantage of the price disparity that normally is there between exchanges.
Either way I think it's a smart alt coin to own at least some of if you have a portfolio of coins.
I use Dash for the this job (or ETH when Dash is unavialable) Coinbase confirms Dash deposits in 5 minutes and some exchanges support InstantSend which means you can trade as soon as you hit send from the other end. But these tend to be low volume exchanges.