Nice discussion but i don't think so that directory submission is dead. Basically in past few years a lot of open source web directories have been introduced which were template based and several directories were hosted on the same server. No doubt submitting into these directories was creating link to our websites but those were actually not beneficial at all either for back linking purpose or referral point of view. Directory submission is not dead and beneficial for websites. Google likes these directory links as well. Google crawls these links and give preference while updating back links for websites. Here one should keep a major point in mind that don't submit your website in any web directory, just do some search, analyze directories and submitted website quality, the approval process, total number of links already present into the directory and then make a proper list of directories where you can submit your website. It will be ultimately contribute to your overall seo efforts. Fact: Actually Google treats all links as a vote to pointing website but in past few years people started SEO work so aggressively and created a lot of directories for link selling and back linking purpose. These SPAM activities forced Google technical team to modify their preferences towards links, page rank and back linking (as i felt). Ultimately concluding the discussion, directories are still not dead, if we take care while choosing directories to submit websites. All the best for all SEO guys and online marketing professionals.
To get thousands of backlinks from pages with PR0 - is not a problem really. Why is there any who do it could get PR7 or 8 for his site? Google is doing right thing when focusing on the quality of links rather than quantity because a lot of people would began to speculate on that.
Dir submission is not dead. In starting of a web you can use directory submission techniques but should be Good and high PR, because it helps in indexing of any site.