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Hmm. Interesting. That's different from some of the chats I have had with previous colleagues in Barcelona. But I haven't spent the time there that you clearly have so my grasp may lack your nuance.
Aroogah-
Well, Catalan has been around for much longer obviously but the whole counter-culture thing that I witnessed felt very much something that had emerged out of the Franquismo. The Catalan Renaixenca didn't really gather momentum until the second half of the 19th C, and while the makers of modern catalanisme have made much of the period, the extent to which Catalan nationalism was a 'real thing' before the Civil War was still contested back at the turn of the millennium. Since the end of the Franquismo, though, the Catalan authorities have made a real effort to shore up the identity, and very successfully so.
h2o
To be honest, I doubt the students scrawling Catalunya Lliure on toilet doors at the Universitat de Barcelona when I was there 17 years ago much cared about the history of the Cathars. Being a regional separatist/nationalist has long been a part of Spain's counter-culture, initially as a reaction to the Franquismo but it has stuck around after that ended. I don't mean to denigrate the identity by saying so, but the 'ancient hatreds' trope is as inaccurate as the idea that this isn't a real, felt identity. Past history is mobilised as a narrative to reinforce current feelings of community, even if elements of that history are contested.