I ran across this video. In it the build puts together a PCB using small pieces of PCB superglued to a larger piece. Not a new method, but beginners may find it useful. Years ago I purchased some Rogers Duroid pcb, it is 1/32" and teflon. I use a paper punch or a leather hole punch to make small discs of pcb. The Teflon material makes it very easy to punch. It is much easier than making small squares with FR4 material.
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I have no comment on the FM transmitter quality. Mikek
Or you can use a "Dremel tool" and cut away islands in the copper.
But the only reason such "pads" are useful is if you need to put it in a small space, so the parts need to be close to the board.
Otherwise, just build it up above the board. The components going to ground provide a platform for the other parts, and as some have pointed out, if there's a point that needs support but doesn't have a component going to ground, you can use a high value resistor, that won't affect the circuit.
It makes it really easy to change things, or for breadboarding, you just desolder the parts and start again. I had one piece of circuit board that I used for such breadboarding, I used it endlessly.
If it's for a finished product, assuming it will be put in a box, then how "messY' it looks never matters.
Good RF bypassing technique too. Reminiscent of the "spark plate" mica square DC power bypass once used in automobile radios.
I used a strip of ultra thin PCB material in a gunn diode oscillator. Bypassing the DC supply is important to get them to oscillate efficiently. I wrapped it around the 3/4" copper tube end that formed the cavity.
It's only good if there's enough capacitance, and only good if you actually want to bypass there.
What is good is that since the board being used is intact, there is a good ground surface, and available wherever you need it. So leads to ground can be short, unlike point to point wiring on perfboard, or the days of wiring on chassis where the ground points were wherey you had a nut and bolt and a solder lug.
But a pad in itself won't provide enough capacitance for a bypass capacitor unless the frequency is quite high, or you have really large pads.
The good thing is that they don't provide much capacitance, so except at higher frequencies, VHF and UHF, they won't interfere with most circuits. You don't want the signal to your trnasistor bypassed to ground, which is what would happen if this actually provided good ground and you had a pad for the base of the transistor.
And that's a whole different thing, way high up in the microwave range where small value capacitors are large enough to be bypass capacitors. Playing with microwave can be hard since lead length becomes significant, but playing at microwave can be easy since required capacitance is so small that you can build things like bypass capacitors (K1CLL used to do endless things in this area, using copper strip and teflon insulators) and variable capacitors, the small values needed making it easy to make them yourself.
Those old radios with the "spark plates" (probably named by some auto mechanic with a screw driver in the wrong place) where just a 1" square of copper with the power lead soldered to it and a 1-1/4" piece of mica for a dielectric. Presumably that keeps the ~100 khz ignition ringing out of the AM band radio.
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