OP_CAT is so broadly useful that whether or not we get a soft fork it appears the wheels are already in motion to emulate it. Both through Bitcoin PIPEs and the recently published (but absurdly impractical) Collider Script research, OP_CAT and some other covenant opcodes are possible today if you have time and money. TL;DR: we can use fancy math and computers to accomplish the same things CAT does without a soft fork. The question is, who has the money or incentive to chase this rabbit cat? Multiple attendees at the conference claimed that the use of CAT is so desirable that the cost to emulate it is not a barrier. For example, Starknet spends upwards of $20 million per month in fees to Ethereum and doing comparable activity on Bitcoin with an “expensive” CAT emulation would probably be cheaper.