I called like 7 state inspection garages, places that do state inspection and emissions repairs, and I talked to a different guy at about 4 of them who all said that it should pass with the hole in the exhaust if it's between the cat and muffler. I tried calling the DMV but no one picks up and I don't think they woulda told me anyway.
They said if the check engine light is ON it will fail automatically which I knew but I told them I passed last time like that by erasing the codes (something about Running Lean and EVAP leak codes) with my code reader and then they become pending codes.
It's a 2000 non diesel truck and one guy said I can have up to 2-3 pending codes which I knew. But I need to time the inspection sort of exact because if the system isn't 'Ready' after deleting the codes, then it will fail and then I have to pay a fee to get re-inspected at the DMV (new rule, no free inspection after already failed, and last time I did this with erasing the codes, it wasn't "Ready" but I went back again for free and passed).
so I don't think I will bother with even welding the hole shut. One guy said they don't stick the reader thing on the end of the tail pipe anymore, all they do is plug into the code reader port, but he said what others have said about this situation when I googled which wasn't an exact answer but people were saying as long as it's not alarmingly loud as to draw attention to the inspector to look under the car, then they won't notice or fail it for a small leak in the exhaust (before the cat).