Being listed in a directory is not the same as getting a link

Quick update from the boring end of launch prep.

I have been submitting ShubHQ to directories since June. Twenty two rows in my tracker now. Until this week I was treating "live" as the win. Row goes green, move on.

Then I actually went back and checked what those live listings do.

Capterra has had us listed since August 1st. DR 87. I opened the profile again this morning and there is no link to my site anywhere on the page. Not nofollow. No anchor at all. My URL is in the page source as data, nothing renders it.

ki-suche , DR 26, reviewed and published us in two days with a followed link.

G2 gave a followed link too. So did Startupbuffer and Pitchwall. Saasboard is nofollow.

So the thing I assumed, that higher DR means a better link, is just not there.

I do not have a clean explanation. My guess is free versus paid tiers, but I have not documented that properly so I am not going to claim it.

What changed is the column I track. Not DR. Not "live". Whether the page passes a followed link, and whether it has ever sent one real visit. The second one I still cannot answer for most of them.

Anyone here gone back and audited their own directory submissions? Curious whether you found the same thing.