A burpee strength progression usually goes like this:
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (no jump)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (small jump - feet barely leave floor)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (huge jump)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Burpees where you go down, do a pushup, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Burpees where you go down, do a clapping pushup, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Then you start to work on doing more in a period of time. You should be able to knock out 100 burpees in five or six minutes.
. . . but yes, generally I agree that body weight exercises aren't typically very good for gaining absolute strength as it's difficult to load the body in a progressive way. For many sports related activities strength endurance (especially repeated explosive movements) is as important as absolute strength though.