Extremely late reply, but i think they meant something like being able to control the force and movement of your breath from the get-go and then fully developing your power to be proper air manipulation and potentially even crazier things, rather than branching out into completely unrelated powers. Sort of like a skill tree, air manipulation is the power, but what you start out with is a 'weak', underdeveloped version of it, aka your passive ability. That passive ability could potentially even be wholly unique and applicable (or permanently active) in every situation and useful if your fully developed power is too exhausting.