If I dismantle an exotic with a catalyst do I lose my progress?

Solution 1:

No, your exotic weapons will not lose the catalyst progression if you dismantle it. Myself and users on reddit have confirmed this.

To test, I used an exotic weapon that had a 3% catalyst progression as my guinea pig. I dismantled the exotic weapon and immediately acquired it through the collections menu. When I had viewed the weapons perks, the catalyst progression remained

The same is also true for exotic weapons with a completed catalyst and upgraded to masterwork. However, dismantling a masterwork exotic and then collecting it through the collections menu will reset the enemies defeated counter to zero.