I'm living in a country (Mexico) where respect and formality is also mandated. In practice, however, it is just as often disregarded, which in my opinion is even worse than saying nothing at all.
In another country I used to live (Germany) the expectations are the opposite: they don't like it if you resort to obviously empty words, such as "How are yoooou?" or "I've missed you soooo much." unless you honestly mean it. This Germanic coldness is in fact their way of expressing respect to each other.