First of all, restoring something always is worth the effort - at least for me. I recently repaired a 25 bucks WiFi extender (which actually is quite crappy from its IPv4 performance) - for fun and kicks, and to see how it was built up and to learn tricks.
Now, please do not beat me. But IMHO, I would not bother with the paper display. Grab an SMD AVR and one of these tiny "won hung lo" oleds from AliExpress, and hack up a "display + data logger unit" of your own. But that is just me, of course - who is currently ripping out the nixies from a SystronDonner 6153 to replace with a similar contraption.