I think PR still matters, but Google is still re-shuffling its index.
Realize that two things have been occuring lately: 1) the big algo change (or whatever it was) and 2) the usual deep crawling and updating of sites.
If PR increases I think it can only be a good thing… However, I do know of a few exceptions to this…
Keyword: Online Casinos (Google)
You will notice that http://www.888-online-casinos.com is currently ranked #1 with PR 5
But, prior to the algo change, http://www.777-best-online-casinos.com was tops, with PR 7.
http://www.777-best-online-casinos.com still has a PR 7, yet it is ranked in the 10th spot.
Professor, which sites specifically increased in PR and which decreased? And most importantly, where do they fall in the SERPs?