Yes, but I think you are overstating the importance of the heat transfer paste.
My computer was running for God knows how many weeks or months with a huge gap between the heat sink and CPU, and the only ramifications were that the fan ran on high speed and eventually the computer shut down.
So, how could microscopic air gaps between the heat sink and CPU cause the CPU to fry, when it didn't fry when there was a 1/4" - 1/2" gap over an extended period?
It seems to me that the worst thing that could happen is that the fan would run at a higher speed for a few seconds to pull off some miniscule amount of extra heat.

