J5 connection has nothing in it in that game it's normal.

Kind of a fun and different game. Have fun.

Full repaint or live with it as is. Depends on how crazy you want to get.

Unfortunately there's no hardtop or repro out there that I'm aware of. You may want to just get it working and play it as is for a bit--decide first if it's a game you want to go to those lengths to upgrade/restore. I have a Stars with a pretty rough playfield but it still plays fast and fun anyway. When you're playing the game, the missing art/playfield wear doesn't matter as much. It can certainly affect the way the ball travels when moving slow, but what can you do.

As others said, the only option for now would be to repaint and clear coat it. Not impossible, but certainly a more advanced-level job. You may want to see if anyone's doing playfield restoration, but good work doesn't come cheap and that playfield needs a lot of touch up.

We haven't heard of any movement but it wouldn't hurt expressing interest here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/outside-edge-seeking-interest-level-in-mr-and-mrs-pac-man-hardtop-