I must admit, that terminology used by microchip is a bit dodgy - more of a marketing ploy than 'good tech'. Sure, many 8-bit micro's will control an LED or two, and its nice that it's I/O's can supply more than the 3/4mA of the older generation uC's, but they really should drop the 'direct drive' phrase, leaving only the 'high current'. I've always used a resistor of anywhere from 220, to 1k, in testing just so the LED lights up. Don't really care for brightness level until the final design. But I vaguely remember years ago when I started out with PIC's just why they suddenly brought in 'direct drive' into their datasheets, when the 'ol F84 could source/sink a similar amount of current.
To Micrchip: Frankly if someone is reading the datasheet for that chip, I'm sure they have a basic understanding of current requirements for LED without having to bring in ambiguous phrases. Add the output impedance of pins to the 'IO ports' section, and thats it.
rank over.