CGT has generally taken a turn for the worse. Removing the "make offer" button is just another step in the wrong direction.
Like @3d-noob I also have a lot of loyalty points, but they are pretty useless as most sales offer a bigger discount than the max 30% you can get from purchasing a ton of models.
Also never got an email about this, but I doubt that would have made a difference one way or another.
As for the missing "make offer" button, I suggest just reaching out to the author and ask. Without the button, it will be more hit and miss as you don´t know who´d like to receive an offer and who wouldn´t, but it´s better than nothing.
Projects are easy to set up and - unless they changed that, too - the author gets a bigger cut of the price by using a project, which might work out to everyone´s advantage.
As I wrote earlier today, I think there is a huge bug on this site as all discounts seem to have vanished.
If they want anyone to purchase during the sale, I hope they fix it soon.