The links from directory submission will still have value if you submit to quality directories. Before submitting your site, you can do a research on the web to see if the directory is listed in the Google search engine. If the directory is not listed in the search engine, it will be useless to submit to it as the link also won't give you any value and it also won't drive any traffic to your site. It could be that the directory is banned if it is not listed in the search result. If the site did not appear on the first page for the keyword of the directory home page title, there is a possibility that the directory is penalized even though it is indexed.
You should always submit to the most relevant category. Usually, a quality directory will have industry based categories. Quality directories regularly get updated and state the last update date on the site. Quality directories usually have editors to review the submissions. Good directories will often have high pagerank. The link may be nofollow but you will still benefit from the traffic that is transferred to your site if it is very popular.