I rarely ever do side stuff at all in the Yakuza games, haha, so yeah I didn't personally care that the hostess stuff was cut but, again, it's sort of a matter of principle. If the game wasn't being localized a year late I think people would have been less annoyed that not everything made it over.
It's like the waiter taking too long to deliver your food and then when he finally does, you're missing a part of your order.
As far as the Asian games, I'd rather mahjong, etc be in there than cut, I mean, it's not like I have to play them and a lot of fans of Yakuza happen to love Japanese stuff so them being cut is a direct slap in the face to people who, maybe want to play Mahjong in their Yakuza.
(and no, I'm not one of these people.)