Forg yeah that has been my experience too, it makes it hard to mount the cluster nicely.
If you wanted an OEM-spec restoration, you would have to cut away the vinyl, then vac-form new vinyl over it.
It's actually not that hard*, but it requires a vac-former large enough to fit the whole dash pad, which is too much space for my garage.
* I've done a lot of vac-forming, but in fairness the largest thing I've ever made would be less than half the size of a dash pad.
