It can, but I don't have any issue's with it.
A person can also shade part of the bulbs and try different brightnesses.
Mine are all soldered in and a strip for back lighting so no bulbs at all, even for the turn indicators and high beam indicator.
The cluster I did for my neighbor's car has all black background with white LED strip for backlighting like mine and orange needles.
All you see bright on his is the white lettering on the gauges and the orange needles.
He's tickled to death with his and it's not near as bright for night as the white gauges are.