Nah the first Hooters is 1983 whereas the first maid cafe is 1920s, and even before that back in the Meiji period (1860s) Japan had "Kissa" which were coffee shops with a "service" atmosphere which were basically always women. The addition of the maid uniform was just added to the Kissa to create the Maid Kissa.

Culturally this was probably successful because historic Geisha culture had already rooted the service culture and turning Geisha into Maids was just a western exotification of the same thing.

It was the late 90s early 2000s where these maid cafes boomed to 300+ venues in Akihabara though, which I would guess was caused by Japan's economic downturn and men seeking forms of fantasy escapism.

There's no imagination, no vision.

Like most american things, it's just a bit shit. Maid Cafes are significantly better in part because there's a whole fantasy there, a fun game, a fictionalised roleplay. It's silly but it's silly in a way everyone gets to have some sort of fun.

Hooters is just doing a regular restaurant and putting the titties out there to try and attract people. Nevermind the fact that it's not the men in families that pick which food place to eat, it's the women.

Much like Gamestop failing to adapt to changing times because it lacks the vision to integrate itself into the community like a TCG shop does, this completely lacks vision also.

A starting point could be different uniforms, not just hooters standard or beach, but a whole range of alternatives. If they're concerned about staff reaction then they should just offer them as choices the staff themselves can choose to try. Put a tail and some ears on. Put a maid costume on. Put a different outfit on and just see how the customers react. If the staff themselves are choosing the outfits they wear then they get to have a little fun with it, they can then give feedback to headquarters about the reception of these things and that feedback can be used to adapt new ideas internally. There's just no reason to stick to one uniform and I guarantee the staff will have solid ideas if you give them some freedom with this because they want more tips. This would be a pretty simple and low-cost starting point for changing things and it wouldn't be too large of a change to harm the existing patrons, which I suspect is their biggest fear - they're scared that changing something will accelerate the losses rather than turn things around.