Hmmm... well I do fall outside the prime demographic you note, but my kids still do shop at the mall and seem to enjoy the mall experience. They are on the low end of the prime demographic, but the mall in our area is still pretty vibrant, although you wouldn’t catch me there — ever.
Here’s an empirical experiment. Go to your local mall and camp out near one of the seemingly popular clothes or goods stores, preferably with a line of sight to the cash registers. Note how many people go in and do “shopping as a sport” versus how many people actually buy something.