Of course it does help. Every relevent backlink counts. Apart from SEO benefits you are likely to get some traffic as well.
I agree with humm. Also if the directory is being promoted in the right way then your links may get pr in the next update.
All links help. I look at the new and 0 PR directories as lottery tickets. You never know which one will be successful. If only one of them goes big my site benefits.
I submit my site to all new directories announced on DP. Most of them are PR 0 but some of them turn out to be good and become paid quickly. So I would say you are 'gambling' here. Of course some of the sites might become link farms but I don't think it has a bad impact on your results. It just becomes a useless link for you.
Maybe it will not help you now, but definitely it will help you in future when the directories get a pr increase.
yes, it helps I think a directory with inner PR 0 or NA pages is even flowing pagerank... I did set up a new website, did a backlink from my directory (PR NA inner pages), no other backlinks and now that domain is PR2
I think it depends, its how you look at it. I mean every good link counts that for sure but every good link without pr will not help your pr so it may be that i may be best to focus your energy towards getting good links with PR even though it is hard.