Earlier its used to be one of the easy ways to get backlinks and thus is overused by webmasters..But now with those spammy directories coming, its more of a time waste
It does not have the same value as it used to have once upon a time, but people still do it in the infancy stages of a site.
Directories still can influence rankings. They just don't carry the weight they used to. I don't think it is a waste of time. Just be sure to mix it in with other ways of getting good inbound links.
I wont forget directories when they helped me land a page 1 ranking in Google for the term freshwater aquarium fish.
With respect to SEO benefits i.e rankings Google has a made a recent amendment in the guidelines stating that directory submissions like Yahoo and Dmoz. The following was omitted during the recent changes: "Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites. " With respect to traffic being listed in high traffic visitors would always be a good way of putting your business in front of prospective customers so I would recommend doing it.