Are Directories Worthless?

So I am embarking on a new project and part of the SEO I am doing for that project involves submitting the site to a number of web directories. After doing some limited research however, I have found that most directories are pretty much worthless as far as giving much link love, and even those that do never seem to get their pages indexed by the search engine. For example, I have submitted to the following directories and these pages still aren't indexed:

A Big Dir
A Bot Directory
a2z
Add Link Suggest
4on
7si

So as you can see, even if the site does get eventually approved, chances are it will be months before it gets indexed! Now, I do think that directory submissions should be a PART of the SEO effort but definitely not a main priority.