A Mask could be used to Subtract from the entire document. The effected objects maintain their current grouping, layers, etc., and don't have to broken apart or ungrouped.
Also, it seems a "blank" Mask Layer can be saved in the Mask Gallery of your template file. When you want to use/activate it, click on the Mask Layer in the Layer Gallery to make it the current layer and then draw on or paste shapes onto mask in displayed in the drawing window.
You might want to experiment. Perhaps there are some other "useful" undiscovered techniques to use a mask for.
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