That actually does not look bad. I have seen them faded to yellow, and white. The ones that are really frightening are the ones in heavy smoker's cars. The silver backing in the gauges was like a magnet for the nicotine, and it would turn a goldish yellow over the years.
That's what I thought, but you know how things can look different in photo's vs in person.
You probably could pull the gauge out and straighten the needle and all the gauges would still match. What I mean is, the NOS gauge needle won't be faded at all.
I may do that. It's only got 6000 miles on it. It really doesn't "need" to go in the trash. It's just the first time I have ever seen that. They bend quite easily so I'm sure it just got a slight kink in it when the gauge was assembled and nobody noticed. It's right at the top where one might not see it if you were doing 500 of these in an 8 hour shift