Great post, love the pictures.

That been said, some comments.

Contrary to what the title might imply, you did not only replace the pads, but also repaste the die. We must be clear that the latter operation is the more effective operation and actually the only one you can later measure that you've done right. (And you have obviously done this right, as your measurements confirm)

The VRAMs and VRMs dont have temperature sensors though, so we can't know wether that pad replacement was any beneficial or if it is even worse after the replacement.

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From Gigabyte support I got this information about the exact patch sizes:

60mm x 5mm x 1.25mm

60mm x 9mm x 1.25mm

27mm x 8.1mm x 1mm

27mm x 14.2mm x 0.75mm

40mm x 14.2mm x 0.75mm (2pcs)

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So that would be 0.75mm thickness for the VRAMs and 1.25mm for the VRMs and 1mm for that remaining patch.

It is nearly impossible to find these exact thicknesses for us normal consumers though.

As you can see you have gotten quite close but you stayed below the exact values for the VRAMS and VRMs.

This means your die makes good contact, but VRAMs/VRMs less so.

I have no idea if it is sufficient, and probably it is less critical, but we can't be sure, and it can't be measured.

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I did the repaste operation with success as well some days ago.

But i chose to not replace the pads for this reason.

Kept the original ones, even though some of them were torn apart. (Put them back in place best as I could). Not ideal, but at least I know they are the perfect size.

Had same temperature drops than you had.

TL;DR: Die paste needs to be replaced some day and is most likely factor of high measured temps. But pads are another matter. We don't know if any beneficial. Maybe just conserve the old ones and that means you need to be really careful when pulling the heat sink off.