You can hack catalina. I didn't want to waste my new macbook on a platform with a substandard music app. So I used opencore boot to trick my old 2012 mac mini into thinking that it is running on the latest hardware. This has allowed me to install macos monterey on my 2012 mac mini. I also replaced the hard disk with an ssd. Now my macmini boots in a minute and that's what I'm using to play apple music. There are few simple steps
1. Download opencore
2. build opencore
3. create a bootable usb stick
4. Hold the option key to boot from usb stick.
5. after booting from usb EFI, chose INSTALL macos monterey to hard disk
6. After installation is completed, you can chose to install opencore boot to the hard disk. This will allow your old macbook to boot the latest apple OS
The thing about old hardware not being allowed to use the latest OS is an example of corporate greed. My 2012 mac mini has absolutely no issue running monterey. ALl programs are zippy. It was just that Apple had forced not to allow the latest OS to be uninstallable on mac mini which would have forced many to upgrade to newer hardware.
If you follow the steps here you too can do it