Wow, a blast from the past!
To each their own - Electrical -vs- Mechanical... "vastly superior" - I don't agree. When I bought my gauges 2 years ago, they didn't make an electrical Vacuum gauge (maybe they do now, and all of the electric gauges were partial sweep (as opposed to the mechanical having a much wider sweep). Also, when running at the track, it is nice to watch the Temperature gauge without the key in the ignition. Also, with electrical, you have two points of failure (the gauge and the sender) with mechanical there is only one (the gauge).
I don't see why anyone would be so adamant about one over the other, it is a personal choice to make after weighing what factors are important to you with your setup. I agree 100%, that any aftermarket gauge will be better than the stock junk... this way you avoid the classic "I think I am running hot, my needle is near the "N" in NORMAL - or is it the "L"...." funny stuff!
Just one other note (from personal experience) - mechanical gauges are not suseptible to certain electrical problems. I had a bad battery drain about two years ago, and as the volts would approach 9V (OK, on an electric AutoMeter gauge
, the tach needle started bouncing around all over the place - I would guess because it had insufficient voltage to run properly... but my Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Vac gauge all functioned properly...until around 8V where my fuel pump shut down!