Depends. Why do you want to be amplified and under what circumstances?
If you are playing onstage and want to move around a lot a mic is going to keep you in one place. Whether feedback is a problem and what you do about it is different between mics and pickups. If you are your own roadie at an open mic, mics will take more time to set up and dial in if needed.
My observation is that the people who actually use mics are the ones who want the amplified sound to be as close as possible to the acoustic sound.
If it's not about performing but recording then most people seem to say mics are the better solution but then not all home studio recordings need to meet "commercial" or hi-fi standards.
In this day and age many buyers will not reject an instrument that has had a pickup installed just because the PU was not factory. Indeed many PU installations are reversible.
So on the presumption that you are more of a guitar hobbyist - you play out sometimes, write and record your own songs, etc. but are not really expecting Fame and Fortune, I'd advise choosing a passive PU that can be installed with no modifications to the guitar and then uninstalled if factory condition becomes important. My personal observation is "removable" pickups, such as sound hole PUs can cause damage if installed and removed too often so I would avoid them as a solution that preserves factory condition except when amplification is needed. If that option looks good then go with microphones instead.
This is an excellent response, Frono.
For many years, I ran an open mic night at a nearby bar. Most performers came with a guitar I could plug straight into the mixer. Some did not, and I had to mic them with a SM-57. I was always walking a tightrope when amplifying a guitar through a mic. Too little gain, and no one could hear the guitar. Too much, and feedback was a real issue. And there was this fine line between the two. I had to stay glued to the mixer to walk that line, something a performer can't do themself while playing. So, my advice is if you are going to be playing in public, without someone running sound, you are asking for trouble if you're playing with any real volume (especially if you are using a stage monitor, which invites feedback).
In my own guitars, I have tried soundhole pickups with some success, but that cord dangling out of the soundhole is Murphys Law just waiting to happen. If you or a bandmate trip over that cord, at least the cord will disconnect from the 1/8" plug on the pickup, stopping you dead in your tracks. At worst, the cord doesn't come unplugged, and you crack the top or rip a chunk off of it.
My solution is that I have a stage guitar (Huss & Dalton) with a K&K passive pickup and a 1/4" endpin jack, and one backup (an old beat to heck Martin 0-17) with the same system. It is easy to switch from one to another without changing the mix.
I also have a number of guitars that I leave entirely unmolested, played only as they were meant to be as acoustic instruments.
