Most probably you are right.
This is not enough to stop me to write a tribute to malls :)
Recently I am travelling thru extremely moist or dry and mostly hot places. After hours of exploring the streets, the people, the smells and the sounds, you would need a break and if you are out of Europe it is likely not to find ala Starbucks air-conditioned coffee bar around. When I happen to be in a comparatively big city, I would squeeze immediately into the first mall I see. It could be the only public indoor venue you can enter and stay unnoticed as long as you want. Here are my 5 reasons to like malls:
2. It has a bathroom that you can use without paying for it and it is in better condition than those outside if there are any at all. Sometimes I get really tired to ask restaurants for using their bathroom and sometimes, believe it or not, I have no cash for using the public ones.
3. There are always wi-fi spots in the mall. Sometimes it is free, sometimes you have to pay for the service, whatever the case, it is a blessing, because, remember, no Starbucks around.
4. The supermarket downstairs. Some cold water, cheap can of a beer and the cheapest way to have some lunch, buying a tomato with a slice of cheese, for instance.
5. A quick dose of a back-to-civilization feeling. Ok, you are a super-keen tribe explorer and can survive in any harsh conditions, without missing any western stereotype. Respect. Just give me 5 more minutes to have an escalator ride once again up to the 4th floor and I will go straight back to the 12th century, where my home is waiting me beyond several sand dunes. Or back to the whatever nature element I am taming now.