There were or still are instances when someone kept submitting links to different site just got banned. But you need to sometimes investigate little more and in most cases the webmaster submitted links to FFA site or any sites that Google considers bad.
Google's expression of directories that you can post links to is "what value this particular site will bring". If you submit your link to this site, what value will it bring to u. If you see value, go for it. A value can even be a backlink.
I tested a submission to over 500 directories at one time, done in about 2 days, and I got ranked no.1
so it works any way, as long as directories u are submitting to bring you some kind of value.
My rule is submit to 200 directories per month. That works perfect actually.