Of course, from time to time I've used copper circuit board
as "perfboard", drilling holes where needed and reaming out the copper
from around the holes so the components go in without shorting. Wire
up on the non-copper side of the board, like perfboard, but all
ground connections go to the copper on the top side.
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Double sided copperclad board is a universal base for anything electronics
including RF circuits.
I prefer the already mentioned 'dead bug' or 'ugly construction ' method
where ICs are involved (legs up ), with the legs to be earthed bent down and
directly soldered to the board.
Earthed components serve as connection posts for other non-earthed circuit
components. For connecting points free from earth I use a special 'island
drill' ,a cylindric rotary bit covered with 'diamond grit' leaving a
insulated 5mm diameter island to which up to 4 components can be joined.
Instead of the islands I also use small 0.25 Watt , 10 MOhm resistors with
one end connected to ground ,the other end serving as post ,since many
circuits have impedences 2 orders of magnitude lower than 10 MOhm.

All earthed components are soldered to other side of board via drilled holes
,hence are perpendicular to board face.

The 2 copper clad sides are joined either by multiple connections through
drilled holes ,or all-around board edge copper wire/strip connection, the
latter especially for vhf circuits.
I have no experience in UHF/microwave home brewing , but understand that
single sided copper clad teflon board (thin) is normally used.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH