I feel like generalized algebraic data types are a strictly better pattern to follow to solve the issue of restricting type variable bindings to specific types.

GADTs which don't store a value based on one of their type parameters are still making use of phantom types. The key concept with a GADT is that you can have type variable binding(s) (whether phantom or concrete) which are determined by the constructor. If you aren't taking advantage of that then you're probably just defining an ordinary data type using GADT syntax.