Let's not beat the guy up too much. Was it easier to cut the wires to remove the cluster? Yes. BUT, now it is harder to get it back in and working. Not the dumbest thing I've seen done on a car before and it can certainly be fixed w/ a little effort/input from us. We all make mistakes, just hopefully the OP will learn from this one and realize that taking shortcuts when working on a vehicle is not usually going to end well.