We did baby led weaning (or a modified variation of) with our son (first-born, unusually) - for us it worked perfectly, from around 4.5 months he sat at the table and played with food while we ate and then somewhere around 5.5 to 6 months he started taking bits in and actually eating just by gumming things (still only very small quantities) - because almost every meal is home cooked we were able to vary the menu to suit him e.g. more soft foods until he was confident with food, so it was much less hassle than preparing lots of purees or even pureeing our own meal to spoon into him. His intake has gradually increased and is now (at 15 months) on mostly solids with only a couple of milk fields a day. He now sits down and eats at a table with one or other of us (or at nursery) for every meal and we really enjoy having family meals together. But this is what suits us and our lifestyle
He still only has 6 front teeth, but can manage most foods except tough meats tend to get mauled until grey and all nutrition extracted in his mouth and then spat out...
There is a big caveat though, weaning is much slower with BLW than with purees, at least based on the puree feeders we know, and if for some reason you need your child to be on 'solids' earlier, then its not going to work for you.
There is a smaller caveat, which is our son now believes all food is for sharing as we've always eaten the same things as he has and shared off our plates - so don't expect to keep treats etc. to yourself!
The big concern you get from 'concerned people' is choking, but from a theoretical a) we both have done basic first aid and refreshed for babies/children and B) would never leave him unobserved with food. Obviously even under those circumstances there is a risk - but there's also an argument that extended supervised eating during his early years lowers the risk of choking as he gets older and begins eating unsupervised (as he is more experienced).
In terms of developmental issues and 'filling the gap', I'm not convinced;
this guidance from the British Dietetic Association suggests there is potential harm of delaying starting weaning beyond 6 months, but no benefit or harm in starting earlier, coupled with its guidance that soft solid food can be introduced at 6 months seems to match my instinct. There is an argument that babies need to learn to move puree around the mouth before solids, but I don't think there is actually much peer reviewed evidence for that.
Final word of caution, there is a book who's title and author I'm not going to mention, but its about the subject above. It does have some good points, but it is in the Gina Ford, 'do it my way or harm your baby' style of authoring that Canrider (and myself) dislike and I'd take it with a strong pinch of salt - we had a much more laid back attitude, where it was appropriate to help with a spoon e.g. soup, weetabix, yoghurt etc. we did so, where it was appropriate for him to hold and chew food we let him do that...