This is happening to me too on macOS 10.11.6. Seems to be happening with almost all macOS ones, it was working recently then it stopped. Uninstalling and reinstalling both Minecraft and Java has not worked. Same issue, no .version file or directory.
I have the exact same issue on macOS 10.11.6, tried deleting and reinstalling both MC and Java with 0 luck.
This is happening to me too on macOS 10.11.6. Seems to be happening with almost all macOS ones, it was working recently then it stopped. Uninstalling and reinstalling both Minecraft and Java has not worked. Same issue, no .version file or directory.