I thought the same thing about the catalyst breaking down. They say they last indefinitely and that wouldn't makes sense as a reaction is happening. Over the year and a half I've been using it the thing will float every 20 to 25 days. It's not getting longer either, could be 24 this time then 21 the next. After it's refilled I'll see a little surge in ORP then it normalizes. Right as it's about to float I'll see another rise. When I see the second rise I'll go look and sure enough it's floating. The one I have is the W, it holds 4 cups of fluid.
I can't tell you if dosing vs the constant steady release is better or worse. I can say the water stays clearer and I don't see any adverse reactions with any of the livestock. I've even seen peppermint shrimp climbing all over the thing. The other thing I know is H2O2 is very unstable. It wants to shed the extra O pretty quickly. Unstabilized H2O2 will turn into water pretty quickly at room temperature when unsealed. Refrigerating it slows it's breakdown. The 35% I have stays in the fridge downstairs. I labeled the jug too, so no one mistakes it for something else. I dilute it down to 3 or 6% when doing other things too. Like cleaning frag plugs or killing algae on them and put them back in the frag tank.