Mahou Shoujo as a term to refer to a type of Anime or Manga was first coined by Toei Animation to refer to a string of shows they aired in a specific timeslot on a specific network in the early 70s the first of which was Sally The Witch a show stated to be inspired by Bewitched but it's functionally more similar to Sabrina The Teenage With. But in terms of Manga source material Akko-Chan actually came first, it too was bascaclly a Sit-Com with some magic in it.
The term become informally associated with similar shows not made by Toei, but was not applied at the time to Cutey Honey even though that was Toei. Then in the 80s another Genre of Anime was born that would become linked to this term though I haven't bothered to see if it was at the time, the Magical Idol Genre with Creamy Mami.
When Sailor Moon took over the timeslot of Goldfish Warning! in March of 1992 it wasn't already one of the most iconic and recognizable brand names to ever come out of Japan, Toei revived the Mahou Shoujo branding for Sailor Moon since both words technically applied to help sell the show. Sailor Moon was associated with this term for Marketing reasons not because it was conceived by it's author or adaptors as a continuation of their legacy.
This is why it irks me when I see people say "Sailor Moon wasn't the first Magical Girl". Because it's technically accurate yet misleading to people who don't already know what you're talking about. Sailor Moon absolutely is the first of what she is, well Codename Sailor V actually came first, the Sailor Moon franchise is the first of what people mean by Mahou Shoujo when they are using that phrase of Sailor Moon and countless other shows that came since like Pretty Cure and Madoka Magica.
Now Sailor Moon didn't emerge in a vacuum, she was a daughter of Genres and Trends in Japanese media that had been going on for awhile. But prior Mahou Shoujo wasn't one of them, or at least was far from the most important of them.
The grandfather of Sailor Moon is the Transforming Hero genre, which was and is a mostly Tokusatsu genre but has it's notable animated manifestations. So Cutey Honey is part of Sailor Moon's lineage, but she's not a missing link between Sailor Moon and Salley The Witch, she's a link between Sailor Moon and Kamen Rider. The creator of Kamen Rider was Ishinomori Shotaro who was the mentor of Go Nagai the creator of Cutey Honey.
But there is another perhaps more directly relevant link between Sailor Moon and Kamen Rider and that's the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series specifically it's 1990 instalment La Belle Fille Masquee Portrine also written by Ishinomori. Tuxedo Unmasked has a very good article on it's influence on Sailor Moon.
So I'm not saying we should abandon the term, but we need to realize it's not useful as a name of a Genre. Sally The Witch and Creamy Mami and Sailor Moon are not all somehow the same Genre simply because this term was used to described them.
The first two Magical Girl genres had American equivalents emerge organically at about the same time as their Japanese versions. But when talking about them everyone understands that it's silly to pretend Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Gem and The Holograms are somehow slight variations of the same thing simply because both involved Girls using Magic.
On TVTropes the more specific term used for the kind of Magical Girl genre that Sailor Moon started is Magical Girl Warrior. But because of what I see as the genre's core values I'm uncomfortable with associating it with the word Warrior. Because of it's actual Parent genre Magical Transforming Superheroine would perhaps be better.
And even in Anime there are shows not called Mahou Shoujo even though both words apply just as much, like Slayers, but they aren't genres who's defining shows were made by Toei.
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