Just a couple statements:

I hardly believe searching for an exclamation point is pattern matching.

InStr does the job quicker. Therefore it must be more set for the task than Like.

Just because InStr gives more information does not make it worse. I don't know where you get that from..

If the speed doesn't matter, it just comes down to personal preference. I think InStr is more readable and I know it's faster, so I prefer InStr.