Some of us that live in rural areas ( I am west of St. Louis in warren county) don't have to worry about passing emissions test as they simply don't test for that out here.
That said I always go with a quality catted dp regardless, that was especially the case with my subies where too much flow of a catless dp resulted in boost creep when the internal wastegate couldn't keep up with the improved flow. Not sure if that's an issue with the current Mk7 gti setup or not, so maybe this isn't even a factor.