Minced garlic is wonderful. I keep a big jar of it. Garlic is great. I put a lot of it in my food. A large jar of minced garlic lasts longer than garlic bulbs, it's cheaper than garlic bulbs, and it takes about two seconds to put 4 or 5 cloves of minced garlic into the frying pan. I will occasionally mince fresh garlic by hand when I'm feeling fancy, but for me the jar is way better for all of those times when the garlic isn't really the main focus of the dish, which is a lot of the time.

That said, it does taste a little different than fresh garlic. If I were trying to impress or was trying to make something garlicky stand out and taste "correct," I'd use the real stuff.