Clearly, Manhattan places have to be treated differently than local places. It depends on expected clientele and what the community is willing to accept. Clearly, the Eidah Chareidis will demand much more from its clients than a 5 towns or Queens vaad will. No vaad in America will demand that no waitresses be used. But Ooomis, should a rabbi give a hechsher to a lounge which specializes in histaklus ba’arayos even if no laws are being broken? I’m sure you would agree in this case. Vaads do have to pick and choose battles carefully.
As an aside, I did a lot of snooping and nosing around on the Streit’s issue, shmoozing with a bunch of knowledgeable kashrus insiders. It had nothing to do with politics, although it got portrayed that way by the press. It was definitely a pr debacle though.