They never hurt the bluegill and bream population in Illinois, we had plenty of gar downstate... and plenty of good sportsfish. The indians would also use smaller gar skin to make quivers for their arrows. It makes a cool-looking quiver and dries hard as a rock.
Best tasting fish I ever had was called trash by many - it’s called the “buffalo.” Everyone told me it wouldn’t be any good but I took it home and fried it up, figuring that if it was as bad as everyone said it would be I could give it to the cats. But it was clean and delicious... so I gave the crappie we caught to the cats instead.