Well, the workaround (see above post) doesn't work as expected.
The group can be created and the playlists can now be mass selected to move the playlists very easily to a group. Also the group name can be selected as expected and the pane menu has an option to name a view at the group level. HOWEVER, once that is done (a name view selected), on my system, it does not always change the view for every playlist in that group. It appears (a guess) that if a playlists has been manually set to a particularly view, that view will not reset to the view at the group level. Setting a view using the grouping name works in part - just not in total.
Also, if after you change the view at the group level, if you then move the playlists back to not be in a group (or maybe a different group - didn't test that), the view is NOT retained.
Conclusion (a guess): the group level view is not copied to each playlist but is kept at the group level and is used only if there isn't a manually set view at the individual playlist level. That appears to be how it is acting. Maybe Matt or someone can say what is really happening. I am wondering if there is a way to force an indiviual playlist to use the group view.