Not really. Several years ago, you needed to submit your URLs to search engines in order to facilitate them finding you. nowday, all you really need to do is acquire good backlinks on well traveled sites. Directories are no longer a useful tool in promotion, either. Write useful content, and tell people who would be interested in it about your useful content. That's the best way to promote.
Yes, it is still adequate. But you should submit your site only to top-directories; of course, there aren't too many of them. This will help you get backlinks and visitors, since many popular sites always ask people to go to top-directories and vote there for them. If you manage to get highly ranked there, you will also receive the re-directed visitors. Instead of taking in account the left catalogues, I would choose backlinks from other sites that are related to your niche or more popular than your site.
Personally I wouldn't waste my time with them, since that have been spammed like crazy over the years..but if you must..then just tackle the top 20 or so.. "Black Seo Guy "Signing Off"
It's an already understood factor that URL submission to search engines as well as directories is very vital in the SEO point of view. If you add content to the site and build some basic backlinks, it will automatically get enlisted in the search engines' index. But for getting enlisted in the directories like Dmoz, you have to publish really great content. It is going to take some time also.
Directory submission still is one of the many steps to gain popularity and sometimes the backlink too.
Agreed, directories have come down a lot, with a very few exceptions. If you get listed in DMOZ, for example, it will provide your site a nice boost. But with most of the directories I would not bother. And, as suggested by selectsplat, write content. Content is still king, and good contents attracts links by itself.
You can start with big directories like yahoo, dmoz , BOTW and hight page rank directories. Personal I will go for articles directories and forum posting