When my guy was installing ours he was asking "where's the disposal? that's what theses smaller, shallow side tubs are for."
I explained the wife picked it out because she liked how it looked, LOL. He did say that if we did add a disposal to spend the extra $$ for a good one and we wouldn't have any problems down the line, so it sounds like you did the right thing.
Also, I wouldn't worry about the catch basin. I had mine cleaned out when I first moved here and there was less than a foot of gunk at the bottom. The past two owners (going back 40 years) don't remember ever having cleaned it out at all. Not that big a deal - many places offer catch basin cleaning.