Mapping/Entities/func group
General
Used only for editor convenience. All brushes in a single func_group count as single entity, and thus you can select one brush from the group, press CtrlAlt e and you'd have whole group selected. It is a good practice to group brushes that belong together, so do that often. Grouping brushes that belong together and form a single object is good, it makes mapping much easier - and it does not impact map compiling or game performance in any way.
Don't clone func_group objects (they stay in the same group). Actually, better do not clone things at all, copy-paste them - that works much better to prevent 10 accidentally grouped beds in a map.
Note that, as opposed to most other entities, you don't have to set levelflags for the func_group entity - you still set them for individual brushes.