Does anyone think these methods are outdated? However, Google has stated that high-quality directories are still of some value. A high-quality directory would be one that isn't a fly-by-night operation.
No - but like anything you need to choose the targeted option/s. The world has gone niche, it went niche years ago - but never use directories as a ranking tool or risk being deleted by the owners.
Google now stats that link building is against the webmaster guidelines and any kind of link building will be treated as manipulation of search results.
Link building as in 'taking fees to drop/plant/place links onto free or accessible websites space' then this should be stopped, I agree with that.
It would be tough to tell if link building went on. Well, you could promote your website with the hope others will link to you out of their own free-will, but even then, there is no real way to know that you were not trying to game things.
Nope - its quite easy, as a normal biz type will get a link request email. I wasn't aware that a one-way link was 'gaming any system'