That would be a lit pixel, and it's the same policy as a dead pixel. They're just to be expected.

They come in a variety of pretty colors, too.

As for the channel delay, that definitely seems like a software problem. It's not all unlikely that Nintendo would reuse the same code on two projects, which is why you'd find the glitch in both Touch n Go and SM64. Even if you did find the glitch in a non-Nintendo game, the bug could still be part of the early software dev kits that Nintendo issues to companies... I think.