Some software components  are installed by a user into a user-created  project/namespace.

However some, are installed by an administrator to provide a cluster-wide service (openshift-logging, openshift-monitoring, openshift-tracing etc.)

In those cases, the operator provides a recommended namespace (e.g. 'openshift-logging') and the installer automtically creates that namespace. Support staff and other operators are liable to assume (at least by default) that such operators are installed in the recommended namspace. Installing elsewhere is not forbidden but likely requires additional manual configuration by the user to work as expected.

The new catalog asks the user to choose or create a namespace before choosing the operator to install. This makes no sense for operators with a recommended namespace - you need to see the operator definition to know the namespace.

In any case, the presentation of a list of namespaces in place of the software catalog makes no sense -namespaces are not software catalogs. Forcing the choice of a namespace before the choice of an operator also makes no sense - there's no such thing as a "software catalog per-namespace" - the catalog is independent. No matter which namespace I pick, I'm going to see the same catalog.

Choosing a namespace is part of installing an operator. The logical sequence is to choose an operator first, then choose the namespace you want to install in. That was the previous flow.

Strongly request getting rid of the namespace list in "software catalog". It's  a small change - this screen should simply always show the software catalog, independent of any namespace. Choosing a namespace can still be enforced as part of the installation dialog (as it was before)