ls 50 metas compared to floorstanding speakers

3-ways are perfectly fine for the nearfield in a coaxial arrangement. In a vertical array with offset drivers typically manufacturers suggest >3m listening distance for a 3-way.

so are the focals in this case not a good fit for my use case? I live in an apartment with not enough space so I will definitely be sitting nearfield - do these focals have a coaxial arrangement? will they sound bad if I sit nearfield with them?

When drivers are physically further apart you need to sit further away for best results in regards to overall coherence, detail, soundstage and imaging.

So yes what will work and thereby  likely sound better largely depends on the individual “use case” as mentioned above.

are bookshelf speakers generally better for nearfield listening than 3 way speakers? what is the "boundary" between nearfield vs. not?

3-ways are perfectly fine for the nearfield in a coaxial arrangement. In a vertical array with offset drivers typically manufacturers suggest >3m listening distance for a 3-way.

Nearfield means that you are sitting where you are not getting multiple wavelengths delivered to your ear. Well, in hi-fi you are always in the far field at high frequencies and always in the near field at low frequencies. So it really means, in general use, are you sitting close or far. 

are bookshelf speakers generally better for nearfield listening than 3 way speakers? what is the "boundary" between nearfield vs. not?

I have the LS50 in a medium sized room but with 25+ foot ceiling. I sit nearfield and I have a very powerful integrated amp on the LS50's. I am really surprised at how loud they play and the amp I am now using is adding more bass than I ever recall. 

Someone I am conversing with was waiting on the LS50 Meta, an upgrade from the LS50. However, there were some delays so he got the KEF R3 instead.

His comment was 

The R3's are much more dynamic, easier to drive, and offer more detail than the LS50s.

They are far better in the nearfield. They are designed to sum their acoustical output right at the output location, versus closer to 3 meters for a 3-way speaker. In that use case, they are leagues better than a traditional 3 way vertical array (not including 3 way point source designs like the Genelec 8341 which would be better). Not to mention you could stand above and below the LS50 Metas and would still have the same output because of the uniform vertical dispersion, whereas a 3-way dome and cone speaker wouldn’t sound very good if you stood above the tweeter axis. The Focal wouldn’t even compete here.

In a large room if your listening distance is greater than 10 feet, the bigger, multi-driver speaker has a major advantage in power handling and dynamics.

Really depends on your use case.