I wouldn't say a decat is necessarily louder than a sport cat, maybe a touch, but the main difference I notice is the tone of it. A decat has a more 'metallic' noise. A bit like if you took two identical music tracks and messed about with their frequencies - turn the higher 25% of frequencies down to zero but keep the mid and bass the same, and that's what going from a decat to sport cat is like. It'll seem quiter, but it's more a case of certain frequencies being muted. I wouldn't use the term 'restriction' generally; the better sport cats seem to flow just as well as their decat equivalent.