I agree that the HMAC approach is better but a proper deterministic encryption would work just fine, wouldn't it? You're comparing your method with ECB mode which is a bit unfair.
$nonce = sodium_crypto_generichash($message, '', 24);
$ciphertext = $nonce . sodium_crypto_aead_xchacha20poly1305_ietf_encrypt(
$message,
$nonce,
$nonce,
$key
);
However, in my experience[1], when it comes to deterministic encryption, most PHP developers will use ECB mode, or CBC mode with a NULL IV.