Interesting. I've heard from lines of Liu He Ba Fa that they are told not to pay attention to breathing as well.
That said, we have several stages with breathing in the xingyiquan I am learning. Connecting the breathing to the movement is a beginner's phase and then the breathing is separated later on to prevent inner organ damage. Even though we practice certain things with breath separated from form or movement we are also working on breathing techniques seated or within still postures. Also there are times to connect and disconnect the body from the arms and/or legs when fighting only to bring them back again.