Do you, Chilli and IO540 not agree that using a Garmin 296 for avoiding obstructions is rather more dangerous than not having one at all? It is not an EGPWS
Who suggested using a GPS for "avoiding obstructions"?
How can having terrain information be worse than not having it? The flight will have been planned at the MSA beforehand anyway. If the "MSA plan" was always sufficient, no airliner would have ever done a CFIT and GPWS would not be mandatory on public transport aircraft over a certain size.
I once asked an instructor: if you were doing an instrument approach, and the ADF was telling you you all was OK, and the GPS was telling you that you are about to die, which would you trust? He said he would trust the ADF.
Says it all really.