For MacOS, the 7.2.0 release was done on MacOS 10.14.6 and it will check for Matlab runtime MCRv84 which you install with R2014b as the argument to fs_install_mcr

For MacOS, the 7.3.2 release was done on MacOS 10.15.7 and it will check for Matlab runtime MCRv97 which you install with R2019b as the argument to fs_install_mcr

I think we already know your machine running MacOS 10.13 does not match the above but MCRv84 sometimes works for you running the 7.2.0 release.  The errors you posted from Matlab could be an issue with MCRv84 w.r.t MacOS 10.13 or your machine.   Upgrading your OS to match the above could eliminate the matlab errors.

If you want to experiment with running different versions of Matlab, e.g., R2017b, then you can go into the file ./freesurfer/bin/checkMCR.sh and comment out the check for the version of matlab by adding pound sign “#” to the beginning of the lines that do the check.   Then you don’t need to try and bypass the check with soft links.  But we have not done testing for the above releases on MacOS 10.13.

I don’t know if you have experience with using multiple boot partitions for MacOS (set via Startup Disk in System Prefeernces).  One test would be to do a clean install of MacOS 10.14 or 10.15 on an empty (internal) disk partition or external disk drive.  Then boot from that partition and install the 7.2.0 or 7.3.2 release with the matching version of Matlab listed above.  You would probably want at least a USB3 connection (or equivalent speed) to an external drive for that to not run slowly.  A clean install should eliminate any issues with the current state of your machine.  Then try running your commands with the matching Freesurfer release in the new/clean version of the OS.

- R.