Is it still OK to use 1 SAT per byte if we want to save on TX fee ?
Most probably, but its depends on pool/miner. Sometimes I have seen on Electrum the adjust bar couldn't set below 3 sat/byte or sometimes 16 sat per bytes. That's means transaction fees determine based on current circumstances. You can see above hash rate has been dropped and transaction has been increased. So on that case probably you will not able to set 1 sat/byte.