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", ...}