There's roughly a 8°C difference between the top 3 pastes and the bottom 3 pastes. To some that makes a difference. But thats not everything that's in a paste choice. Many times, pre-applied pastes dry out from sitting too long in hot containers on oceanic freighters, then sit in warehouses, then shelves in the stock room before finally making it to your pc a year after initial application. So many ppl have an inherent distrust of pre-applied pastes after having had this happen several times, or to their buddies or even clients.
There's also application/cleaning. Pastes like the Noctua, Phanteks, Gelid extreme etc apply very easily, spread very well and evenly, aren't sticky and tacky and thick. And clean up very easily too. So they become the paste of choice for ppl who use paste Alot. Apart from the fact they are all in the top 5 performance-wise.
Then there's Arctic Silver 5. 25 odd years ago, cpu cooling wasn't a thing the way it is today, the Pentium 2 350MHz was actually a card that looks almost exactly like a gpu, had a shroud and fit in a long pcie looking slot. So pastes were rarely every used and quite expensive, $20 for a single tube for 3 applications. Along comes Arctic with its toothpaste like AS5 in a 10 application bottle for $6. Wildfire sales would be putting it mildly. AS5 became instantly popular. A popularity enjoyed still today. It has only 1 issue (apart from being totally mediocre performance) it's a heat cycle paste.
Here's the skinny. Pastes don't transfer heat. Or so little it's not worth measuring. It's actually the silicates, diamond dust, and other substrate components that do the transfer. The pastes are just a medium to hold all that together. So even though AS5 dries out after @ 200 heat cycles, no worries. The paste is now no different than a weak, dry glue. Holds all that stuff that's actually transferring the heat. However, even the smallest bump can break the seal, just like bathtub caulk once dried and breaks, it will never stick back, so no real connection to the cpu, no heat transfer. Your more grease-like pastes like the three I mentioned, are not heat-cycle pastes, but stay permanently grease-like so never need 'repaste' ever. Not unless you remove the cooler. Those pastes will last 20 years or more like new.
The Noctua I used 5 applications was $11. Gelid extreme 3, 3 applications $8. Thermal grizzly, 5 applications $12. Honestly not that expensive for 20 years hassle free peace of mind for top performance pastes.
Is most pre-applied pastes decent? Yeah, decent, if new or still viable. Once it starts drying out? Eh, no. So yes to some ppl they'd rather trust their own experience and not take the chance on a questionable, machine applied spray paste.
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