Hi /fit/. I've been doing Medhi's Stronglifts 5x5 for about 9 months now and loving my progress. I've recently run into a problem with its squat-centric programming. I'm a professional school student on internship rotations and living in a place for the next 6 weeks with pretty high rent. One of the benefits for the price was supposed to be access to the fitness center, but astonishingly to me there isn't a single power rack in the facility. No bench pressing racks either. It's impossible to do barbell squats or bench presses safely in this cables and pulleys purgatory.
While there isn't a power rack, they do have a Smith machine. I've read many compelling arguments as to why the Smith is an inferior choice to natural squatting, but some claim that it's actively dangerous and bad for the knees. I used to have pretty bad knee pain a few years back when I wasn't using proper form, so I don't want to relive that misery. On the other hand, I would think the Smith at least engages my core much better than the leg press machine. There are dumbbells and simple benches, so I'm not too worried about my barbell bench progress.
Is the Smith machine's shitiness overstated, or would it be better to use the leg press and spend a few minutes planking to keep my core tough?