Is thermal paste acceptable for the midframe?

Hello all,

I bought a broken pixel 7 pro and replaced the battery, screen and earpiece speaker. Long story short the device was a mess... missing screws and there was dirt and grime inside the device??? I noticed the thermal pad in the midframe was in bad shape and i didn't have another thermal pad to replace it with so i used thermal paste....

The question is, is that acceptable or should I open this thing back up and put a thermal pad in there?