Interesting. I wondered what the springs around my 65 Dart drums were for. I had assumed they were to increase heat transfer, but your description makes more sense.
I adjust the shoes outward until the drum just slides on with some drag. That is to insure they will work. I then remove the drum and adjust the shoes in a few turns (knocking them in with my palm). The drum then spins freely, so no drag while driving. That makes the pedal travel a lot. I then back up down the street, jamming the brakes hard multiple times, to make the self-adjusters work. The pedal should then be fairly tight. I think all shoes will first contact at just a few points, unless everything was precision machined. But after a bit of use, they should wear to contact the drum evenly. I have even re-used drums or rotors with grooves and the shoes or pads wear to match them. An auto store once messed up in turning a front drum on my 65 Newport, cutting a wide groove on the inner side. Of course they didn't fess up, and I didn't notice until I was putting them on 50 miles away, so I just used them (for 20 years). The shoes would wear into that groove, and I never noticed an imbalance. It did make it harder to remove the drums, having to back off the star wheel using screwdrivers.