Does the CSS direct decendant (>) not have any value in selectivity?

Answer 1

You have two conflicting CSS rules. Direct descendant selector has the same specificity as descendant selector if I am not mistaken, therefore the rule parsed later will override the formerly parsed rule, so if your rules are:

.foo > a { color:green; }
.bar a { color:red; }

then the color will be red. If your rules are:

.bar a { color:red; }
.foo > a { color:green; }

then the color will be green for any anchors which fulfill the selector of both rules.