#1 - Much like Eric I'm very confident. What few smallies I have landed have given the usual healthy strong fight and have all released with the same healthy strong, with a bit of an attitude, kick that soaks the face and glasses.
#2 - Personally I have found this "condensing the fish-in-a-barrel" thing to not be true. I have fished many areas on my home water where the fish should be condensed only to find that it's just not so. I have pulled 2 to 3 smallmouth out of these areas but that's it. I believe this may have been true maybe a month/month and a half ago for a short period of time. Not so at this time.
#3 - The conditions are tough out there with the low levels and high water/air temps. Smallmouth (much like the Borg of Star Trek's "Next Generation") adapt very well. As of the last couple of weeks I have been finding the smallmouth in their usual summer time spots. Not where I think (or where people may think) they should be bunched up and condensed at.
#4 pt1. - No, I don't think you are needlessly concerned. I think most of us are a little concerned but I have yet to see that the Borg, I'm sorry, the smallmouth, have been affected by the conditions. #4 pt2. - Apparently smallmouth are much tougher than you thought. They are the Borg after all. It probably won't be long before they assimilate us into their collective.
Resistance is futile