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Looks normal to me. Keep in mind that the plastics on these car hardly ever warp but will develop cracks under high stress and heat.
When replacing, just take your time to evenly torque the bolts as if you were doing a wheel. If you need more information, e46 use the same m54 motor. The only difference is that we have an aluminum heat shield by the exhaust manifold which can be slightly bent in order to access one of the valve cover bolts.
Most packages come with the valve cover gasket, spark plug wells, and half moons (vanos). Make sure you get the valve cover bolt gaskets as well. Part numbers are the same as e46 m54. You can choose to use RTV on the half moons, but I chose not too. I believe the tsb and other articles say you can, but a General rule of thumb is that you never use a combination of a gasket and rtv.
These gaskets typically fail around 60-80k. Usually it's around a half moon, above the echaust manifold, or the spark plug well. If you ever notice a light smoke coming on the passenger side followed by a burning smell, it's typically oil dripping onto the exhaust manifold heat shield. This is the typical indicator since the cam head is slanted towards the passenger side. If you see oil in the spark plug housing, it's clear you should change it asap. If you're experiencing none of these symptoms, I'd leave it off until it starts becoming more apparent.
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