Reputable company for thermal PUTTY not paste and not pads?

Hi everyone. New to the forum with a 3 year old GS 66 Stealth 10SF core i7 10750H 45w TDP Comet Lake. I recently (about 1 month ago) had to go into my unit and remove the heat exchanger/fan assembly to clean the dust out of the fins to restore optimal airflow. I re applied non-conductive thermal paste to the cpu and gpu; no big deal.
The issue I am having right now, which just started, is certain cores in my processor are reaching the thermal threshold almost immediately after booting up (100c). I had installed new thermal pads (.5mm), but not having the slightest frickin clue on proper depths and clearances between cores, dies, copper piping, etc, AND being pretty certain the clearances will vary, I am almost positive my gamble on using the .5 thermal pads across the board was not right at all. I saw an article from a guy on reddit that supposedly knew the proper clearances, but even he didn't seem too sure.
I just want this unit to cool properly again and it's pissing me off being unable to find information on PROPER clearances. It almost appears that the stock red compound I initially removed from the laptop was not thermal pads but some sort of thermal putty. It would make sense given the different depths between the interfaces. Does anyone have recommendations that would be effective to ensure proper clearances, and what the best material would be ( paste, putty, pads?) Thank you in advance.
Specs for my CPU are found in my screenshot of core temp.