The official explicit staff directive is: when editing, DO NOT take into consideration how the ODP might be used by ANY search engine.
Editors get removed for violations of that. We're building a directory that can be used effectively as a directory. Whatever doesn't contribute to that is abuse (whatever it does to the search engines.) Whatever contributes to that is good (however the search engines use it.)
In other words: it is not our business, it will not be our business, and we WILL remove any editor who tries to make it into their business.
Any search engine, including Google, can use the ODP data any way they want. Anyone can spider the ODP public pages, for any reason (1 request per second or less).
Historically, several search engines have used the data several different ways; all of them changed the way they use that data over time. We expect this situation to continue.
Google representatives are publicly claiming that at the present time ODP listings are treated as links by Google, in the same way that links on other sites are treated. Most links contribute something to page rank.
Beyond that, there's nothing we know, and even that is irrelevant for editors who want to stay editors.