PostgreSQL, PostGIS: Copying a schema with a geometry column
Adam,

First that is old document -- new one is here: http://postgis.net/docs/AddGeometryColumn.html

Though what they say in both is the same.

The using that function is only need for 1.5 and below.  2.0 we encourage you to just create the table normally. 

something like 

CREATE TABLE test(gid serial primary key, geom geometry(POLYGON, 4326) );


pg_dump works fine either way since in old version it would restore the constraints and new version the create table would be built with typmodifiers.