Plot hole: Kryten explains that the quantum skipper must be recharged after every use, and the time this takes must be must be taken into account. This is an important plot device the first time Rimmer uses it, but it is conveniently forgotten for the rest of the episode.
Suggested correction: Kryten said what he believed to be true based on purely theoretical work. No evidence is presented that he'd tested the skipper "for real." Its ability to hold charge on subsequent jumps was better than he'd anticipated.
Read the posting again. "This is an important plot device the first time Rimmer uses it..." It was not only stated but demonstrated that the time skipper must be recharged each time it is used.
Watch the episode again. The need to recharge the skipper after every use was stated but not demonstrated.
Suggested correction: Lister can only see M-Corp products and M-Corp employees. Cat is not an employee of JMC or M-Corp, so he disappears. Lister is the only member of the crew who is employed by M-Corp at this point.
Suggested correction: Cat was a descendant of the cat Lister brought aboard Red Dwarf. Would it be possible that the new owners might have stricter security controls, and Lister was sent to Stasis for a different reason?
Andy Benham ★
Inventing Deux ex machina explanations for a plot hole doesn't make it any less of a plot hole. M-Corp erases all of the Jupiter Mining Corporation's equipment, personnel and infrastructure from Lister's life. In no way is Cat a part of that. He has no connection at all to the Jupiter Mining Corporation, and until he meets him in Episode 1 no connection to Lister, either.
If M-Corp only erased JMC equipment from Lister's life, then Kryten, who belongs to DivaDroid and not the JMC, wouldn't have disappeared either. He disappears as he doesn't belong to M-Corp, not because he belongs to the JMC. Cat has no connection to M-Corp, as he wasn't a part of the JMC (as you pointed out), and is therefore erased for Lister.