I own both Saltigas and the Catalinas. They are both very good reels. As a reference (on water test), I fished these reels in Maldives, Indonesia as well as South Oman and they perform flawlessly. Landed some decent GTs from ranging from 30kg+ to over 50kg. They are still as smooth as new. No noticeable difference in performance too. My biggest GT in Oman was actually landed with the smaller size Saltiga 5000H.
If pricing is not in the equation and its purely about performance and reliability, I would say buy it with confidence. With Alan Hawk's review clearly demonstrating that the Catalina's engine is almost identical with the Saltigas, I'll probably buy the Catalinas instead of Saltigas from here on...... You can get 3 Catalinas for the price of two Saltigas!!!