Seems like this would likely be for emissions reasons, not theft reasons. There's plenty of cars that want the catalytic converter to be as close as possible to

Seems like this would likely be for emissions reasons, not theft reasons. There's plenty of cars that want the catalytic converter to be as close as possible to the engine. Ultimately it's a packaging constraint. If they just wanted to fix theft issues, they'd just have slapped a steel plate and claimed it was for aerodynamics over where the cat usually goes.