@carleen Oh is it? Haven't dealt with a scenario where popular items was showing an catalog item from catalogs which aren't a part of particular portals configuration. 

Regarding your feedback, the changes I made to redirect users to a specific category instead of popular items was exactly what the customer wanted. They were facing an issue where users were being lazy and using a generic catalog item called "Non-standard request" for all their requests(as it came on top in the popular items).

The customer aim was to reduce this behavior and encourage the use of actual catalog items for specific requests. Now, if users needs to request specific items, they can navigate to different categories and choose from the available items that meets the needs. Therefore, That's why I didn't clone or make changes to the widget. However, based on the issue you're currently facing, it seems like you might need to clone or make changes to the widget. Hope this helps? 

Regards,
Ishaan