What is the complexity of computing optimal prefix free codes, when the frequencies are similar?
It took a few years (five!), but here is a partial answer to the question:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1602.00023

Optimal Prefix Free Codes With Partial Sorting
Jérémy Barbay
(Submitted on 29 Jan 2016)

We describe an algorithm computing an optimal prefix free code for n unsorted positive weights in time within O(n(1+lgα))⊆O(nlgn), where the alternation α∈[1..n−1] measures the amount of sorting required by the computation. This asymptotical complexity is within a constant factor of the optimal in the algebraic decision tree computational model, in the worst case over all instances of size n and alternation α. Such results refine the state of the art complexity of Θ(nlgn) in the worst case over instances of size n in the same computational model, a landmark in compression and coding since 1952, by the mere combination of van Leeuwen's algorithm to compute optimal prefix free codes from sorted weights (known since 1976), with Deferred Data Structures to partially sort a multiset depending on the queries on it (known since 1988).