yes, usually more so because of the way bloggers tend to link to one another, therefore leading to a greater page rank
yes they are one of the best way to improve your own rankings - if your just adding comments then make sure it has NOT got no follow attributes, otherwise no point
they are as, if not more, valuable IMO. blogs link with each other and gets updated a lot, so that's definitely a plus.
Blogs & Websites have the same SEO value\weight formulation when it comes to backlinks, one does not have an advantage over another. Yes, some blogs might give more weight than websites, that phrase is also possible the other way around.
I don't think blogs have adavantage wrt backlinks. The only SEO advantage of blogs is its flexibility in adding the content at regular intervals.
In general, a link from a blog would be treated the same way as a link from a general site. A lot however depends on the strength of the blog, as well as the location of the link. In content links are better than say, a link in the footer, simply because they look more natural.
Link from any source is valuable but it should be theme based. This type of links improve SERP surely.