Hey experts I have been put in some serious shi* by the oaktree mazda dealership

I have an 04 RX8 with about 110K miles on it. Maintained good with daily driving.
So one day I was driving back home, everything working great and suddenly the CEL light turns on and my car starts losing power. I tried to accelerate and it would take real long to accelerate with continuous loss of power. I could feel something is bad.
Got home read some forums here and figured out its probably the ignition coil/spark plugs and I am probably running it on a single rotor. Got it towed to oaktree stealership and got it checked, they confirmed its the ignition coil but they said fuel got pushed into the cat and catalytic converter got melted and is fully damaged (I don't believe that shi*). I barely drove over 2 miles once I saw the engine check light, does cat get messed up that fast?
You think it might have done any damage to the engine?

I don't have 4-5K to spend on it

 

engine should be fine just get an after market cat/mid pipe.

 

You can toast a cat. converter if fuel gets dumped into it. I've seen it happen, have them show it to you.

 

Warranty is only 80k miles on the CAT.

You have 110k so that already is a pretty good life.

Have them show it to you.

 

So I replaced the spark plugs, wires, and ignition coils and no more power failure. I asked the mechanic to show me the cat and how to know if its messed up. He lifted the car, opened up the oxygen sensor plug and showed me joint where O2 sensor goes. Car was on so it was bright orange/red and there was a crack in it. He said cat does have some damage but its not "gone". The mechanic doesn't know a lot abt rotory engines but replacing plugs and coils is standard so he was able to help me out with those. Should I take it to a rotory expert and ask him to check out the cat? Is there some sort of test to see if its damaged? The dealership guy kept saying it needs replacement and is fully plugged or something.

 

I can't afford the Mazda OEM cat (around $1200). Any good recommendations? I can't spend over 6-700 bucks on cat

 

Then go no cat at all, enjoy a louder exhaust, 0-5 more horses and flames