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The cat is like an FE afterburner.
When the heat gets high enough to detonate fuel before its actually inside the cat is when it causes the abnormal issues. creates substantially greater pressure in the cat(turbo, high boost) and more intense heat.
If the cat runs too hot the fuel goes off before it gets there. it still does its job of cleaning the air but the cat is not able to pump out any active pressure(like the engine shoveling out hot air) it cannot overcome the expansion of preignited flames and so thats where the pile-up happens.
It's also a somewhat moot point. The cat's going to get warm within probably seconds of the car starting. Yes I know it takes the engine block a long time. . .but the engine doesn't have 400 degree air washing it over it non-stop. What I'm saying is more heat washes out the tailpipe, its smaller and shielded and takes less time to warm up.
Touch your engine block after running it for one minute. Touch your exhaust manifold. Touch your cat. . .catalytic converter. I wouldn't expect your cat to be very warm, maybe fuzzy.
It's why your exhaust air takes a few seconds to get warm, its warming the cat to optimum temperature. I know for certain it doesn't take my exhaust air more then 10-15 seconds to get pretty warm and that much more to go toasty. So saving the cat 30-60 seconds of getting to optimum temperature. . .you're very likely to release many more pollutants from your nearby coal plant that produces your electricity for the heating of the cat. Engine I won't argue because then you gain efficiency and engine efficiency comes above ALL when it comes to regulating emissions.
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