To gasket or not to gasket, that is the question

I used a very small amount of RTV on my 318. The engine sat for years while I saved up the money to have the car's bodywork done. When I was finally ready for the engine, I pulled it apart just to make sure no little critters had gotten inside. I pulled the pump and found that while tightening the fastners, RTV had squirted out into the outlet. If I would have run the engine, that would have broken away and could have clogged an oil passage. I've seen very thin paper gaskets in some kits but didn't use one this time.