This card is hilariously bad.
First off, Focus Group puts advancement tokens on cards, not advancement counters. It doesn't matter if you put 99 advancement tokens on an Project Beale, you still can't score it because it has less than three advancement counters. This makes Focus Group bad in a hilarious way.
Assuming you are playing on jinteki.net, which has a bug which causes Focus Group to place advancement counters instead of tokens, it is still an under-powered card.
Here are the hoops you have to jump through in order to use Focus Group:
First, the Runner has to have made a successful run last turn. This is a pretty common occurrence, but still an annoyance.
Second, the Runner has to have at least two cards which share a card type in the grip. This is by no means guaranteed - most Runner decks have a healthy mix of Programs, Resources, and Events, along with a lesser amount of Hardware. If the Runner is on two-three cards in hand, it's pretty common for them to be of two-three different types. Additionally, if the Runner suspects you're playing Focus Group, they can deliberately sculpt their hand to avoid enabling the card. I suppose you could try to run some net or meat damage to prevent the Runner from holding less cards in hand, but good luck crowbaring that into a deck which is already using space for a Focus Group package.
Third, you need to be able to look at the Runner's grip. Unless Oracle May is on the docket for a reprint with support, you won't be able to guess what's in the Runner's grip without just using card effects to peak at it. Which of the options for revealing the grip do you think will make your Corp deck a winner? Waiver? Ibrahim Salem?Harishchandra ent.? Standard Procedure? Peeping Tom? Hyoubu Institute? Playing Focus Group forces you to compound the mistake of playing one bad card with the mistake of playing other bad cards. (Also known as the Jemison problem). The best of this bunch is probably Engram Flush and Salem's Hospitality, both of which trash the cards you were planning to feed to Focus Group. Don't forget that if you lack your grip reveal-er, Focus Group is almost useless! I might even be easier to just bounce cards back into the Runner's grip with cards like Self-Growth Program or Jua
Biotic Labor shows what the going rate for this kind of effect is. Assuming you have already met all of its conditions, using Focus Group to fast-advance a 3-for-2 has a the total cost-to-score of 6 credits and 3 clicks . Meanwhile, Biotic Labor has no preconditions and will let you fast-advance a 3-for-2 with a total cost-to-score of 7 credits and 3 clicks. Saving 1 credit is not worth the cost of jumping through Focus Group's hoops.
Thus, the only plausible use cases for Focus Group are in-faction as a worse but less influence-heavy Biotic Labor , or attempting to get 3 or more counters to fast advance larger agendas. I suspect both of these roles are much better fulfilled by a deck attempting to land Hard-Hitting News into Psychographics
Maybe this card could be good if something is printed with very high synergy with it. Perhaps an Operation with "The Runner draws 10 cards, then reveals the grip." Until that happens, throw this card in the jank pile.
I think this review really nails why this card unfortunately just isn't very good. Maybe it should have cost less than 3. or placed the advancement tokens for free. To your point about counters or tokens, I was really stunned by this and looked it up. But NISEI Comprehensive Rules 1.9.1a says that "tokens" and "counters" are interchangeable terms. Also, it looks like NISEI and FFG cards have actually used "advancement tokens" for the majority of their cards, even though I could have sworn they said "counters". Some real Mandela Effect stuff, lol. This inconsistency is a bit of a shame, though.
— dnddmdb