I like the Catalan as white but have trouble finding anyone who plays into it.
What do you like to play against the Catalan as Black?

Christof Sielecki has a whole chapter on it for Nimzo-Indian players in his "Lifetime Repertoire: Nimzo-Ragozin" course on Chessable.
Damian Lemos has another approach (based on the Bogo-Indian) in his Nimzo/Bogo Indian video series.
Depending on what you play as Black, those would be good places to start.

I like the Catalan as white but have trouble finding anyone who plays into it.
You are forcing the Catalan too much when you play. In Christof Sielecki's Keep it Simple 1.d4, He recommends against almost anything that Black plays to play d4, Nf3, g3, Bg2, 0-0. Later on, then you play c4 which prevents a lot of early sidelines and it goes straight into your territory

I like to play QGD and sometimes when I see that a8-h1 diagonal will be open I transpose to Catalan... Slav defense is something that stops me to transpose it to Catalan...
I am 1500 rated player so not so good with theories and similar to your rating so that maybe help you... So, with Slav defense you will probably avoid it or play against it effectively on this level.

I like to play QGD and sometimes when I see that a8-h1 diagonal will be open I transpose to Catalan... Slav defense is something that stops me to transpose it to Catalan...
I am 1500 rated player so not so good with theories and similar to your rating so that maybe help you... So, with Slav defense you will probably avoid it or play against it effectively on this level.
The Slav does not prevent the Catalan, nor it's an easy equalizer. Actually the Catalan is quite popular as an anti-Slav weapon.
https://www.modern-chess.com/expert-repertoire-against-the-slav-defence-part-1-1-5h-running-time-270
Of course you are right, what I tried to give here is personal opinion of mine, on a pretty low level... He is around 1400, I am around 1500 and I know I have troubles with catalan against slav... So, when I play catalan I hate to face slav defence... For sure I am no good in openings neither in other stages of the game with this rating and I just know some basic principles of catalan, like couple of moves...

In club player play it seems one of those openings that shouldn't worry black much. Opponents just won't have the technique necessary to exploit very subtle positional ideas. The main problem for black might be the game is little dull. The above is an exchange sac idea that was mention by IM Pfren some years back, which unbalances play.
@1
Accept the pawn and let white prove his compensation.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2122755