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Thanks for your response, Peter. But I'm still as confused.

Surely, if SEOMoz cherry picks a shortlist  -- having applied criteria for inclusion, otherwise you'd have www.spamlinkdirectory.net and all sorts -- then puts them on a page headed "SEO Web Directory List" it must been seen as an SEOMoz endorsement (implicit or otherwise) of their SEO benefits. I could probably find 75-100 on that list (Web+social+local) that could be construed as relevant to my site. Would listing in them be a "terrible idea", given that I'm also using other link-building techniques?

Have you looked here?
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain-authority

FWIW, here's Matt Cutts making clear the "issue" of too many links per page is not an issue.

May i post the same content to different blogs? NO
and article directories NO
Is this cleaver/correct idea? NO

Don't go near article directories. Here's why.

There are 455 directories (212 web, 188 social & 55 local) on the SEOMoz list.
Presumably they are there because SEOMoz recommends them.

Yet common wisdom seems to be that web directories have negligible SEO benefit - see this recent SEOMoz Q&A discussion.
Matt Cutts advises against paid directories in this video (which >99% of them are)
In a private Q&A last  month a member of the SEOMoz staff told me a link to my site from this directory, which appears on the list, was a "poor link".

I think some better clarity in SEOMoz's guidelines on directories would be appreciated -- and I'd appreciate SEOMoz staff weighing in as promised when Private Q&As were ended -- especially as many SEOMozzers take most of what we learn here as near-gospel.

Oddly enough this is the third time this question has popped up in the past week or so (!)

I refer you to my previous answer:

Matt Cutts says: _Don't _no-follow internal links: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bVOOB_Q0MZY

Hi
So are you saying directories (even top-end ones such as Yahoo, BotW and Business.com) have NO benefit for organic search rankings?

If directories are so devalued, why does SEOMoz publish a directories list? 
Serious question.

This may also shed some light:

Oct 9, 2012 Keri Morgret On-site Community Manager at SEOmoz:

Another reason is that we just don't have the same size server farm that Google and Bing have. We could crawl all of Twitter and get nothing else crawled, or we could crawl some of Twitter, and some of the rest of the web. We aren't able to crawl all of the web, and we release a new index about once a month, so that's why you don't see all of your links or see them right away.

However, what we do offer that is different from Google and Bing is that we show you links for sites that are not your own, we add metrics about the trust and authority of the page, etc.

Matt Cutts says: Don't no-follow internal links: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bVOOB_Q0MZY

He also points out the "issue" of too many links per page is not an issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l6g5hoBYlf0

This list here http://www.seomoz.org/directories/local contains some good free ones.
Otherwise, I'm with Brian: the number of free directories outside that list worth submitting to can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Hi Keri & Chris
Thanks for the replies.
What I'm trying to ascertain is: is a link in the body of a post more trusted by search engines than one in an author bio at the bottom of it?

Watch this Matt Cutts video here in which he says it's not an issue.

Bad, bad, bad. Not me, that Matt Cutts guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bVOOB_Q0MZY

Quick Q Chris, given that I found your answer at the top of this thread one of the most informative I've read in a while:
Guest blogging: does it make a difference whether the link back to my site is embedded in the article itself as opposed to in an author bio at the bottom?
Thanks

Hi M M

I'm assuming you mean article directories with significant pagerank?
If so, you should watch this Matt Cutts video:
http://www.inetseo.co.uk/what-links-do-google-want-to-see/

Long story short: avoid article directories.

Hi Francisco
Thank you.

SEOMOZ List - yes, but only related ones. Quite a few on the SEOMoz list are "general" directories. What's the deal with those? Avoid?

Squidoo - NO
This was my gut feeling as well. But why "no", given that it is a high authority site?

Thank you all for your responses. 
However, my key question still hasn't been answered head-on:
Specifically, in Apr 2013 is there still mileage in directories (such as these on the SEOMoz list) or on this GetListed list; or in placing content on social sites such as Squidoo?

Given the importance of editorial links & co-citation, beyond guest blogging what other high-value link-building tactics should I be looking at to boost organic search placings?

Specifically, in Apr 2013 is there still mileage in directories (such as these on the SEOMoz list) or on this GetListed list; or in placing content on social sites such as Squidoo?

Hi Greg
I think MozRank and MozTrust are good indicators but not failsafe predictors of search engine ranking (which I'm guessing is your ultimate goal)

In my sector (real estate) I've seen sites with seemingly low metrics (DA, number of links, social shares, MozRank, MozTrust) outrank sites with figures twice and three times better.

I'm no guru, but what I've seen suggests to me that link relevance is becoming more and more important -- ie, a site with 40 highly on-topic links (even if from low/medium authority domains) can rank far, far higher than OSE metrics would suggest.