Figured it out for now: on MacOS, don't forget to add "./" before the entire jav-it download command. It should look like this:
./jav-it download -c r18.com_cookies.txt -o "/Users/user/Downloads/jav-it_v1.5.3_mac/JAV" -i 483zkkk00014
You got it! On Mac and Linux, you need to tell the system you want to run something from the current directory by using "./". Otherwise it will try to run whatever it can find in your system path. (^_^);