A lot depends on the variety. I used to harvest at three mostly green leaves, but one variety I grew (Estonian Red) would have a lot of split wrappers. I switched to four mostly green leaves and the splits reduced but were still too many. At five mostly green leaves all of my varieties have solid wrappers. Bulb size has not suffered at all and most of my crop comes in a 2.5 - 3.0 inches.
If you intend to eat or replant your garlic within 4-5 months, three wrapper layers is fine. If you intend to store it for 6-8+ months as I do, then more wrapper layers are better. My experience is that bulb size is not affected - in fact the last two years harvested at five green leaves yielded the largest bulbs yet. Of course other factors affect bulb size such as soil fertility, water, scape removal, temperatures, and especially sunshine. If the difference between 3 and 5 green leaves is a factor at all it seems to be a rather small one.
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