I tried that, in multiple locations. It works perfectly with every aircraft, including the uninstalled catalog in Aircraft/org.flightgear.official, except for the c172p. Something is evidently different about that model, I know not what. Also something is obviously different about the Mac build that you aren't seeing in linux.
Tomorrow, I'll fetch an older version of the 172 from a Time Machine backup, and see if it's the model or the app.