I asked an Australian colleague about this and he told me the sight of someone wearing pajamas on the street would remind him of someone escaping from an asylum.
The pajamas custom, however, is fundamentally different from such bad habits as spitting or running red lights. It does not have a detrimental effect on others.
Before I delve into a defense of pajamas, I'll offer the most common explanations for this Shanghai phenomenon - occasionally seen in other Chinese cities as well but never so ubiquitously.
The number one reason is comfort. Most Shanghainese do not see pajamas as sleepwear. Rather it's casual wear one can slip into after work. Since it does not expose much flesh, people do not feel self-conscious - as they might when wearing, say, bikinis or evening gowns.
Old-style Shanghai residences are often quite cramped. There is a thin line between public and private space and gradually housewives looking for more space subconsciously came to view neighborhood streets as part of their front yard, somewhere they felt comfortable enough to parade around in their pajamas.
Back in the 1930s, when pajamas first came into vogue, they were a sign of affluence and had a certain cachet. Many decades later, this sense of pajamas as a fashion statement lingered. This theory is, to an extent, corroborated by Shanghai-themed movies in which women in pajamas are portrayed as glamorous.
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