[sebst]

AOL is going to shut down DMOZ on short notice by end of February. Maybe that's the reason for your denial.

DMOZ had a history of being very strict with applications of both, editors and sites and in the end was primarily used to improve ranking.

In my opinion, the future of web directories, if there is any, is a combination of strict moderation, wiki-like collaboration and automated processes. Some questions will arrive from personalization and real-time content (think of news, weather, twitter/blogs...)