There are similar errors in the past (on this forum), but I suspect something else is happening here.
Although the trace file I have used for this is from SQL 2016, I also have SSMS v17 and v18 installed. When loading the trace file I get the following error in the ClearTrace window:
Files to process: 1 ( 1.9 MB )
Clearing Target Tables...
SMO Version: Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfoExtended, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91
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Processing: SampleSQL2016Trace.trc
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Trace File Read Error in C:\Temp\SampleSQL2016Trace.trc (Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.)
Inner Exception: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Inner Exception: Failed to initialize object as reader.
Inner Exception: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\150\Tools\Binn\pfclnt.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
You can visit the support forum at http://forums.sqlteam.com/c/cleartrace
Done.
This is correct, the DLL is missing (even though I have the relevant Profiler versions installed), this is because the DLL can now be found at a different path, namely
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\PFCLNT.DLL
I tried to solve the issue by copying that DLL across to the presumed location, but it didn't work - so I suspect there's a dependency issue. I tried to figure that out with a DLL Dependency walker, but couldn't see anything obvious.