Couldn't agree more. I mean, I understand hearing a breath occasionally, but when there are literal "GASPS" between lines, like someone snuck up behind the vocalist in the studio and scared him or something, that drives me fucking NUTS. It's not even a modern vs. vintage issue; it's just shit breath control/vocal technique. (I had a whole slew of stuff to say about the OP and my thoughts on it, but it seems most of what I'd write has already been covered, and I'd end up writing literally 15-20 pages about it. So many angles to approach it from, and so many different ideas to address....argh.)
Here's a great example of a huge band with terrible breath control & technique; just be prepared to be annoyed as hell, as this dude freakin' GASPS between EVERY. SINGLE. LINE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lAbFnPFnkA
I have to respectfully disagree here. It's not that I like that Muse song---I don't---but I don't think he's doing that because his technique sucks. I think it's a stylistic choice. For instance, check out the vocal in the song I posted at the beginning of this thread. Here it is again, for convenience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvRwR-hZDVY
It starts off pretty tame, but as the song progresses and builds in intensity, you hear much more breath in between the lines. I don't think that's because Stevie has shit breath control or vocal technique. I think it's because it's adding to the intensity of the song.
Now, regarding the Muse song you posted, I don't think that's necessarily because of the intensity, but I do think it's a stylistic choice. In other words, I firmly believe that the engineer could have said, "OK, sounds cool dude, but can you do it again without making the breaths so obvious," and he could have done it. Those breaths were very obviously left in there (it would have been quiet easy to clean them up if they wanted to).
I approximate this type of vocal delivery with the kind of grunge style of playing chords on the guitar. I'm talking about the technique of deliberately lifting your fingers off the strings during a chord change so that the open strings are played on the upbeat right before each new chord. You can hear it in songs like Nirvana's "Rape Me." It's not that Kurt couldn't make his chord changes smoother if he wanted---he did so in many other songs---but that technique is part of that sound.
Anyway, obviously you don't like hearing a lot of breaths in a vocal, and that's cool. But to just say that it's only or always because of shit technique doesn't hold a lot of water, IMHO. I think it's quite deliberate most of the time. And when it's not deliberate, it's done so to put forth a style in which that is part of the sound.
That's the way I see it, anyway.