SNES D-pad clean up and repair

One of my original SNES D-pad is having trouble registering button presses so I took it apart and gave it a good clean and noticed this:



In addition the rubberized pads are pretty worn so I plan to order a replacement kit for it. I'm curious if I need to reapply something to the area where the dark substance rubbed off in addition to replacing the rubberized pads.

 

Conductive paint. Doesn't come cheap though - I have just recently opened up a controller which is in even worse condition, and right now I'm thinking about just buying a 3rd party one and doing a board swap instead.

 

Just did some pricing on that stuff and it is up there for just one small project. I'm curious if those conductive pens like this stuff would work.