What is "radial inbound", here?
The pointer of the needle points at the reciprocal of the radial the airplane is . If that is what they mean by radial inbound, that's the one.
It is not necesarily QDM, since VOR radials use the variation of the station, instead of the variation at the airplane's position, so there can be a slight difference.
also, in case of failure of the rotating card, the tail of the needle will keep pointing at the correct radial, so you don't have relative bearing indication.