just went to file a GHC bug, only to find that I've been beaten to it by 11 years:
https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/issues/3134

in that issue, @simonmar@twitter.com mentions recalling a "very old" ticket about this, 11 years ago!!!

anyway, this bug is still in GHC 8.10.1... 😅