We have followed a semi Montessori approach with our daughter (not fully, but a lot of stuff) to foster independence and yeah, leaving her "alone" to eat what she wants to eat or doesn't want to eat has made her a great, adventurous eater. She's still a toddler, so there's time to go through the picky phase, but if she does I will continue to offer good things in addition to whatever her chosen food is.
My goal is to have my daughter have a healthy relationship with food, and a main part of that is allowing her the freedom to listen to her body and know that if she's not hungry, or she's full, it's OK to stop eating. Being "a part of the clean plate club" and "there's only a few bites, why don't you just eat them?" and "starving kids in Africa" was a HUGE thing when I was a kid, and as a shock to no one as an adult I am overweight and literally feel guilty when I can't eat everything on my plate.
I hate how Kristi reads one new thing and then starts spewing it in her stories like she's some expert on child-rearing, or like it's gonna be totally new information to her followers.