I do the same, grouping enables editing as and when needed. I often hide the promoted layer, it depends on the paper I am using. Also you can move those shadows around the page.
It goes to show how much we love those corner punches. I see you used them to balance the page, as did I. Having text on the top right and bottom left, I felt the layout needed that little something extra to balance it. Love the colours you used. The dark green on the background paper, in my view draws the eye to the centre of the page, as it should, focusing on the photos.
Oeps I see now that I used the same cornerpunch as Sue did, but I will keep it on my layout. Again I used a photo from Muir Woods National Monument; the atmosphere there is so serene! While I was visiting there were lots of people, but it was calm, almost everybody was quiet and in awe of the very tall redwoods. The backgroundpaper has a cellular texture and the paper above comes from my Build a Kit - Woodland walks. The dragon flies are brushes from a set by lileya that I have found somewhere a long time ago. The top paper is by Jessica Dunn with a blendmode to let it fit in with my colors. Fonts are Astrid and Bahnschrift Condensed.