Not a perception, just a statement of fact. More than a decades worth of experience... Pretty much seen it all at this point.
Yes, getting inbound urls from niche category with high quality PR will sure help you to rank in Google.
Quite helpful I guess (would be best if it's a high page rank directory). I too use directories for my website. It worked somehow for me.
Yes, still you have option to get good backlinks from directories. But you have to filter those good directories. If you filter you will find a few of them as good. But one good directory listing will be counted better than 100 free directories listing. Please check the directories PR and popularity before you list your website there.
I find it wildly hypocritical and ironic that Google seeks to discount directories, directory listings, links, etc., on one hand whilst gladly taking money from Directories, Directory listing services and Link/submission sites in the form of Advertising on of all things, GOOGLE. Anyone want to guess what keyword search generated these results? What say you Cutts???
As long as you submit to the 10-15 good directories that still exists out there, you'll get only benefits + credibility + targeted visitors.
It's quality rather than quantity. I would look for niche directories within your niche. Tech directory for tech blog, pet directory for pet blog, etc. And don't forget social media.
You really want to be careful submitting solely based on PR. You may find that the "high PR" is fake and the directory fleeting at best. There's a lot of recycled domains with high PR that are being used for short term gain/bump directories most of which contain scraped and or duplicate content.
Being generous, but not counting niche directories, there are perhaps twenty-five or thirty directories that are well worth having your site listed in, and twenty more that will probably help you a little bit. Most "web directories" are actually back-link repositories using a web directory script, but just because there are a lot of fast food places on your block, that doesn't mean that there aren't also some good restaurants worth patronizing, and maybe some great ones. Rather than letting Google, Alexa, and Moz do your thinking for you, learn how to tell a good web directory from a bad one, and don't be afraid to submit your site to one of the good ones, even if it doesn't have PageRank yet. Ninety percent of the sites listed in the better web directories were added to the directory by directory editors, without the permission of the owners, and Google can't tell the paid ones from the editor-added sites, so it would be madness for Google to penalize your site for being there. Besides a possible boost in your SERPs, good web directories will send you targeted traffic. Sure, the percentage of traffic that you receive from a web directory will be minuscule, as compared to what Google sends you, but the traffic you get from a well organized web directory will nearly always be targeted traffic, which means people who are looking for what you have.