You could mount the cooler directly on top of the die with the Athlon XP. Turns out people kept damaging the CPU, hence the switch back to heatspreaders.
Permanently attaching a cooler to the CPU itself doesn't really seem like a viable option to me. Mounting it to the motherboard would be a nightmare, and you'd end up creating a one-size-fits-nobody cooling solution. Nobody would be happy with the cooler you end up choosing.
In reality, cooling paste really isn't that big of a deal.
Oof, I remember how terrifying it was to mount one of those Athlon coolers, having heard so many stories about chipping the CPU or cracking a corner off.
Permanently attaching a cooler to the CPU itself doesn't really seem like a viable option to me. Mounting it to the motherboard would be a nightmare, and you'd end up creating a one-size-fits-nobody cooling solution. Nobody would be happy with the cooler you end up choosing.
In reality, cooling paste really isn't that big of a deal.