Seriously, most of what you say is flat out wrong. But there's nothing I can say that will change your mind. If you have any interest in finding out more I would encourage you to out the experts on meditation, singing, woodwind-playing, etc. They'll confirm what I've said. If at that point you still want to dispute what the experts say, what the most experienced people tell you, that's something that, for me, would make me start turn inward and question my own instincts/thoughts/motivation.
I realize it may seem like the most relaxed form of breathing is however you've been accustomed to breathing automatically, but no, probably the majority of people tend to breathe using chest breathing and it is definitely not the most relaxed sort of breathing. You can't fill your lungs as full, it creates tension in chest, neck, and shoulders, neglects using diaphragm, which is the primary muscle for breathing. Learning (actually re-learning, because we all tend to do it right as young kids) to breathe properly may not feel natural at first, but that doesn't mean it's not the best way. If you overthink things by creating a (false) mental image of it being harder you may sabotage your efforts, though. Don't take my word for it, take a look at meditation resources, singing resources (singing well -- and also playing any woodwind or brass instrument -- requires natural relaxed breathing), general health resources on breathing. All distinguish belly-oriented breathing (good) from chest-oriented breathing (generally bad, suboptimal).
As a real world example, you may be able to notice in yourself how when you become nervous or scared your body becomes tense and you tend to chest breathe. Focussing on belly breathing in a case like this can actually calm your emotions as well as your body, dissipate the fear or nervousness, help you gain control over your fear.
Breathing for meditation is about relaxation. Proper, relaxed breathing, in general, requires breathing using the diaphragm, directing air downward into your belly, not upward into chest. The vast majority of people are unaware of the proper way to breathe, which is one reason it should be one of the first things discussed when learning meditation.
"Although there is a certain logic to breathing with the chest muscles—that is where the lungs are, after all—it is not helpful to use these muscles as the primary tool for everyday breathing. Breathing primarily with the chest muscles makes breathing too labored. The effect is to arouse the sympathetic nervous system and to maintain levels of tension that sap energy and dramatically increase your susceptibility to emotional disturbances. Overusing the chest muscles for breathing is a subtle but major cause of physical and emotional distress."
I don't think it's too strong. Meditation is a wholistic activity, if anything is. It involves putting your entire body in a relaxed state and mind being aware. With bad quality of breathing, which is what you get from "chest-breathing" it is impossible to properly relax. Here's what the mayo clinic says about breathing in meditation:
"Relaxed breathing. This technique involves deep, even-paced breathing using the diaphragm muscle to expand your lungs. The purpose is to slow your breathing, take in more oxygen, and reduce the use of shoulder, neck and upper chest muscles while breathing so that you breathe more efficiently."
I would challenge someone to find any (good) resource on meditation that recommends chest breathing. I'm sure there are resources out there that recommend chest breathing for meditation, but they are either (1) uninformed or simply not carefully edited, as in website we're discussing in this thread, or (2) it's something way different from the normal, garden variety, meditation that beginners should be doing (which website in our discussion is not).
Yes, the chest will move very slightly in deep belly breathing. But no, this is not a trivial thing, the focus in breathing should be on the abdomen/belly, which is your center; not the chest, which is a source of tension, and especially full of tension if you're breathing up "into" your chest.
Again, this is not a trivial thing, and you can easily check good sources on breathing (e.g., for meditation, singing, running) that will describe how belly breathing works. Chest breathing is actually not proper breathing in any circumstance; it doesn't use the diaphragm (the muscle designed for breathing purposes); it creates tension and doesn't allow breathing in as much air as belly-breathing; it's something we develop in our too-fast, too-stressful, too-nervous society.
These are just two top results that turned up in search for 'chest breathing' and meditation, you could find many, many more:
As a related note, breathing is of paramount importance in singing, which like meditation requires proper relaxation and deep breathing. Learning to how to belly breathe and get rid of bad habit of chest-breathing is one of the first things you'll learn from any singing instructor.
The recording seems okay, but I find it really odd that the scripted voice says "feel your chest rise on an in breath, and feel it fall back down on an out breath." Chest-breathing is something to be avoided, especially in mediation, as it creates tension. The proper method of breathing is diaphragm-based breathing, otherwise called belly-breathing.
This is not a trivial issue for meditation, really strange that they get it wrong. They should be saying, "feel your belly rise on an in breath . . . " and there should also be some instruction on proper method of breathing, since many people are unaware of the difference.
Seriously, most of what you say is flat out wrong. But there's nothing I can say that will change your mind. If you have any interest in finding out more I would encourage you to out the experts on meditation, singing, woodwind-playing, etc. They'll confirm what I've said. If at that point you still want to dispute what the experts say, what the most experienced people tell you, that's something that, for me, would make me start turn inward and question my own instincts/thoughts/motivation.