I hear what you are saying.... I love the fact that Qt is using real statistics to calculate the Fees.
It is probably still worth the time and effort to always look at:
http://bitcoinexchangerate.org/feesbefore sending a transaction...
Also.. be away that the way Qt computes fees may depend your it's copy of the mempool. This means if Qt hasn't been running all day, or if it isn't fully synced, that the stats may be off.
Your are not answering my question: did Bitcoin Core 0.11.0 changed something in how Smart Fee is calculated?
Thanks for your answer.
Thank You for the rest: free info is always valuable.