Question on shutting down application tier services during patching

 Hi,

Apps 12.1.1

The first section in the Read Me is Pre-Install Tasks and some time there is nothing that we are suppose do in the first section. But the first line in first section mostly mention to Shutdown all Application Services.  I opened a SR a few years ago and I was told that for every patch we need to follow the ReadMe and if in the Pre-Req section there is nothing to do but if the first line is saying to shutdown the services then we have to shutdown the services.
There are a few people who think that this is a standard template and the patch can be applied hot and we don't have to shutdown the services because there is nothing in the Pre-Req section.