This is interesting, however the fact that the password indicator gives me a more positive reading for 'qwerty' rather than the correct password minus one lette

This is interesting, however the fact that the password indicator gives me a more positive reading for 'qwerty' rather than the correct password minus one letter ('inconsequentia') means to me this is not really 'hinting', just saying yes or no. It is nice to do this on the login page itself (rather than the usual click and 30-seconds to load a 'your username or password is invalid' - where you need to retype both again), however I assume that you probably have unlimited attempts to 'guess' the password, and thus it is probably quite susceptible to abuse.