If you set things up properly (IMO), the flow rate going through the overflow shouldn't be that high anyway compared to the flow in your tank. So, turning off your return pump shouldn't make much of a difference in how hard the fish have to work to get food.
Currently I'm fish only, so I don't bother to turn anything off, but when I feed corals, I usually turn in-tank flow down to a minimum for ten minutes or so. I actually just programmed a few feed modes for my apex to do this, one for 10 mins and one for 20. Otherwise, food goes in and the fish are on their own. The only exception to this is when feeding particularly oily foods, amino acids etc; I've created a third feed mode to turn only the skimmer off for a few hours.
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