Why do many high streets and city centers lack a lot of shopping/mall culture and leisure spaces?

After being back in the UK after living abroad for awhile, I have noticed how a lot of high streets and city centers, even in areas that could be considered more urban/not super rural towns seem to have mainly “service“ type businesses, for example, barbers, banks, smaller versions of chain supermarkets, chain pharmacies, and usually a few pubs. There’s a lack of places where you can just walk around and browse, or hang out like a proper mall.

I grew up in the USA in a really rural area, so we didn’t really have much there, but the majority of US towns have a pretty good selection of shops and things to do especially in places that have a downtown area which are similar to the high street as a concept. The US also tends to have a lot of hobby shops and especially if you have certain hobbies like card games for example you can socialize at those shops. Now, I know this is because the US has a ton of space and things are spread out, requiring cars, so we can’t really compare the two counties.

However, I also lived in Japan for awhile. Japan is also a smaller country with not so much space, but most cities are heavily built upwards rather than having single story buildings so that may play a role. Many Japanese train stations have massive malls built into them, and there’s always a plethora of cafes around, many of them open late so you can just hang out without having to drink alcohol if you wanna stay out in the later evening. Even in SEA countries that are poorer like the Phillipines and Thailand, there are loads of malls everywhere.

So, I’ve always wondered why in the UK, there aren’t a variety of shopping centers and places you can just hang out at like a cafe, arcade, bookstore, etc without losing tons of money. I’m aware there are certain places like Westfield that have more of that vibe, but I mean why in general does it tend to feel like many towns and cities can feel empty if the high street is mostly vape shops and barbers and pharmacies that all close at 5 pm sharp.

does anyone know why shopping and cafe culture has never really took off like it has in Asia, for example?