Judging by A's nappy yesterday, he actually ate some of the cooked carrot still he was chewing/sucking on.
I think 'modern' purees are all about tastes & introducing finger foods at 6+mths. I think BLW (or baby self-feeding as the UK site suggests) is more a reaction to the now out-dated almost force-feeding of purees to get calories into babies, as used to happen. Now "food is fun til 1" is accepted regardless of bf or ff, the weaning route is relatively similar. I don't know anyone that does or has done 'pure' BLW. I used some spoon feeding of porridge & yog, which is technically not BLW. IMO the only rules you should follow when it comes to weaning are food safety ones - no whole nuts, avoid gluten at first, well cooked eggs, no honey etc etc.
I give A bits off our plate or that I'm giving DD in the evenings to have a play with but I don't consider it weaning. He went mad for the pear, ate almost half of one & cried a bit when it was gone, had a gnaw suck of carrot and thought cucumber was pointless but I don't think of it as 'weaning'. When he can actually pick it up & independently wants to eat it, then I'll do it properly, introduce porridge and a range of finger foods etc. At the mo, he doesn't have the hand-eye coordination to hold it properly & get it in his mouth.
Lily no words, just hugs for you.