If I remember correctly, the original GoF book was inspired by patterns in architecture [1], so it's more about naming patterns they have often seen, and not about "if you use these patterns, your code will be better". It's a glossary of sorts, so developers can use the same words for things. This aim is independent of language and paradigma; the authors just happened to see mostly OOP.
However, just like Asdfbla said: People started to use it as a kind of manual and applied the patterns no matter the problem. Again, the problem is more the people than the idea...