Though maybe moot with the proposed new functionality mentioned by Nick, but still:
Just to put it out there.
I admit I have uploaded a few flows too which have dashboard items.
People have said that it is/was not fun/nice because it causes unused things after testing/debugging.
Maybe it would be nice when you delete tabs/groups that as they are "empty" they get auto deleted.
I get that when building a new group the group will initially be empty, and so it would cause a problem with handling it.
But as a thought to get around that, a new way of building a group would be used.
Not too difficult. Here is how I see it would be done:
Drag a dashboard item into the work area.
The red triangle will appear.
Create a new group and all is good.
That way is not too different to the way which would cause the problem with the way I suggested is to create the group prior to dragging the dashboard item into the work area.
Just a thought.
With this way an automatic tidy up could be applied to happen automatically.
As a final option: This could be turned on/off so if people want unused groups (etc) then there is no problem.
It is a little annoying to have to hunt down and manually delete the configuration nodes for Dashboard. Even more so when you paste in someone's example code for a quick test.
Not really a priority issue though.
I usually spin up a clean workspace/project before importing something totally random - then re-export just the parts I need into my "real" flow.
On export if tabs/groups are really empty we do usually flag that as part of the deployed success banner - click the link takes you to the config nodes menu showing the unused tabs/groups - which you can then easily delete before exporting. We can't force users to tidy up - no more than I can get my kids to tidy their rooms.
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Yes, i guess I'm either too lazy or too short of time ... lets go with the latter!
That certainly works as advertised - just a slight annoyance for those of us with OCD 
Haha, speaking as someone who is 3/4 of the way through clearing out our loft/office space after 20 years of accumulation, this hits a little close to home!
I could have set up a computing museum with the stuff I've now disposed of - including one of those wonderful IBM PS/2 mechanical keyboards.
yes - typing ctrl-c then node-red blank.json can get arduous
hah - I have two of the PC AT keyboards in my office !
