Short rests require an hour in which
a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
(PHB, page 186.)
Eldritch Master takes one minute, and doesn't specify what you can and can't be doing in that time. It's unclear (i.e. open to DM ruling) if you have to spend that minute doing nothing except entreating your patron, but even if that's true, sometimes, you don't have an hour. If you're running away from something, you might just be able to get a minute lead on it to quickly get your spells back. An hour lead is a lot less likely.
A minute is a very short time out of combat, and even in combat, it's 10 rounds. In a protracted fight you could probably pull this off. In a really protracted fight, you might need to. For example, if you're fighting the Tarrasque, your Eldritch Blast will be entirely useless. Once you're out of spell slots, you're going to be standing around doing nothing. (Slight exaggeration.) Your allies might be able to keep you alive for 10 rounds so that you can get some spells which have a chance of achieving something.
It shouldn't need pointing out, but an hour is 600 rounds, which is just not going to be possible in any combat. (Unless you're fighting a Dire Half-Dragon Fiendish Snail or something, but that's just getting silly.)
Of course, all of this is somewhat pointless if your DM is ok with you doing other things during the minute it takes to use this. For example, even if you're only allowed to use your movement, running around for a minute screaming at your patron for help seems completely achievable. If your DM rules that you can fight as normal during that minute, then this feature might actually be too powerful. Get into a fight with a tough enemy? Start praying to your patron. That gives you 10 rounds to use all your resources, at the end of which you just get them back immediately. Personally, I wouldn't be quite that lenient, but that's up to your DM.
Eldritch Smite is Warlock slot only
Only warlock spell slots from the Pact Magic feature can be expended to use Eldritch Smite; spell slots from the Spellcasting feature do not work with it.
An unofficial tweet by rules designer Jeremy Crawford in November 2017 confirms that this was intentional (unlike the paladin's Divine Smite, which had similar wording initially but was changed in errata later to work with any spell slot):
Talking about Eldritch Smite; can you only use Warlock spell slots to power it, or can you use any slot (à la Divine Smite)? The RAW on it specifies Warlock slots.
Eldritch Smite works with warlock spell slots only—the ones you get from Pact Magic.
Best Answer
Polymorph is not, in fact, on the warlock spell list. The only way a single-class warlock can get access to polymorph by themselves is through the invocation.