You can mount a tweeter in the air and open its back......many people do this and also do this with compression drivers. Nothing new. I have been doing this to a Vifa tweeter for 22 years. The backwave cancellation/absorption on the Kef is for the tweeter....it has nothing to do with putting the speaker near a wall or not. There are lots of ways to terminate/absorb the rear of a driver. Open baffle gives you a oomplete boxless sound....and no back wave from the driver going back into it. Of course, with open baffle you need the speaker out from the back wall and maybe some treatment on the back wall.
From the above post from Alvincastro.....it is clear that listening to what a dealer has to say about the Kef speakers is not wise. All the meta drivers are 12th generation (stated by Kef) and I bet the ones in the Blade and Reference are identical and the LS50 just has a different surround and spider, etc. to allow it to handle frequencies down to 60 hz.......but other than that...I bet it is the same.
If you have any real info directly from Kef that says otherwise....please share it with us. Again, what dealers say....is not worthy of repeating. Go directly to the source.....not to someone who wants to upsell you something or sell you something they have in stock. As I stated, the Reference uses better wire, xover parts and jacks.....and of course, has a more solid cabinet than the LS50.......the Blade has even better wire....hard wired xover, better parts again and better jacks again.......and opposing woofs. These are the differences. The differences in the parts, wiring and jacks is shown in pictures on the web. This is truth. I might not be right about the drivers......but I doubt it. This is why you can take an LS50 meta and mod the sheet out of it (including Bybee Quantum Clarifiers and Ground Enhancer and wiring directly to the voice coil wires.....and using an incredible outboard xover)....and get much better sound from 450 hz on up than a stock Blade speaker.
Please read the review of the Bybee thangs....imagine one of them mounted right on the meta material.....OMG!
https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0620/Loudspeaker_Mega_Tweakfest_Review.htm