system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
Correct. You want it as thin as possible, just enough to fill the microscopic gaps and unevenness between the two metal plates, with full edge-to-edge coverage. Factory spread or very carefully with clean tools can give you that result.
gpt
luckily mounting the cpu heatsink tends to spread the paste exactly where it's needed and because of the high mounting pressure the paste literally can't take more space than there is physically available, better put more than less. So no need for any fancy edge-to-edge tools bs. Just put enough (or a little more) paste and slap on the cooler properly.