Put the $30 instrument pack in. Everything works except nothing in message center. No mileage displayed.

 

Does the green light on the display work? If so, you could try replacing the LCD with the one from your old instrument pack.. I don't know if it's easy, though.

 

I don't know how easy it is to get just the LCD panel and sub-board out of the old cluster and swap it, but as far as I can see you should be able to replace the main PCB on the old non-working cluster, with the PCB from the new cluster. So the OP would have the old dials and LCD with the new working PCB. I think it's worth experimenting with given how little he paid for the replacement cluster.

This video shows how to dismantle the instrument cluster.

 

I can confirm the instrument pack is plug and play.
The eBay seller of the $30 one with the message center that didn’t work refunded me and didn’t want it back. Anyone who wants it for parts can have it for shipping.
The one I put in was $100 on eBay. Its mileage is 106k miles. The one I fried when jumping a dead battery had 103k.