From what I understand modern SMD LED luminaires rely less on heatsinks, take Cree's new Guideway series, that doesn't have much of a heatsink (though it does have way more diodes).
SMD LEDs are not somehow different from any other LEDs. About 70% of the power turns to heat, virtually nothing of it gets out of IR (due to no parts of the light source being at high temperatures). This heat have to be removed from the LED assembly and then from the luminaire body as a whole
The only question is, what is the actual power (the heat) vs. the surfaces area to dissipate it, regardless of whether it is shaped as visible fins or not