Getting the client version fails if the kubeconfig is invalid:
$ kubectl version --client=true
Error in configuration:
* unable to read client-cert .../client.crt: no such file or directory
* unable to read client-key .../client.key: no such file or directory
* unable to read certificate-authority .../ca.crt: no such file or directory
Update to match behaviour on v1.10.13 and earlier:
$ kubectl version --client=true
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", ...}