RE: If voting made a difference, they'd make it illegal... Wait.
Why is your name Freedom Vigilante? It seems like you're not for freedom in the slightest. European law or Spanish law is not freedom since government is an institution that can only survival through coercion.
You story is very in depth, but it doesn't matter for the issue of secession. I don't agree with a lot of viewpoints that the Catalans may have, but that doesn't mean they don't have the right to govern themselves. I know that the Catalan government won't tolerate individual freedom either, but at least the level of government will be brought down one more level towards the community and the individual.
That is the most important thing. It's not about who owes what to whom and who does better in the economy. Everyone should have the right to self-determination, regardless of the way in which this is exercised.
You are wrong, you don't know how fascist and xenophobes the secessionist politicians in the region of Catalonia are. I know, I've lived there. They do have a public entity for media censorship, you cannot go about Barcelona if a t-shirt when it is very hot in summer, you cannot do nudism in the Barcelona beaches, you cannot rent your home to whoever you want without paying the politicians, Catalonia right now are probably the most repressive politicians in Europe, and Europe, in general, is very repressive to start with.
The Spanish government is much more open and European, although they still have many things to learn from other countries.