98.5 A4, can I turn off instrument panel lights that are default always on?

No, nothing known in combination with diagnostics.

I have read of being able to change this, but in a B6. ..I currently am on shareware, and to access
 

19 in 17-Instrument, I need to buy the software. I haven't needed to unlock my VAG software for anything yet - so I am trying to see if it would work - no sense in spending money for something I couldn't use.

...this is what I have read, below

17-Instruments: K1 -- KWP-1281
VAG-COM Works fine.

Tweak:
There are four lighting modes:
Mode 0: Nothing lit until ext. light on
Mode 1: Pointers lit all the time
Mode 2: Scales lit all the time
Mode 3: Pointers and Scales lit all the time
Mode is changed in Adapation Channel 19. Standard value should be 11000 (or something close). The first (left-most) digit is the lighting mode.

Adaptation 60,61,62

I believe this was a new feature added to the B6 cluster
 

and isn't available in a B5.

-Uwe-