Yes. Directory Submission is still one of the effective SEO method. Some of the benefits of Directory submission are,
* Faster Indexing
* Higher Link Popularity
* Better Rankings
* Higher Page Rank
* Effective Keyword Targeting
* Quality Directory Traffic
* Brand Building
* More Customers
and many more. I always use Directory submission for my website. I used the search engine visibility service from XnYnZ.com to submit my website to over hundreds of leading search engines and directories at just one click. It was very useful for me.
From the beginning time directory submission is helpful in seo purpose. If you want to do directory submission than go for it because Google still not consider directory submission as black hat seo.
On which basis you can tell that directory submission are not much helpful now a days. Because I never heard any thing wrong with the directory submission and even search engine are also consider directory submission as white hat seo technique.