Malaysia is very doable as a single person. Everyone speaks English, lots of good food. Coliving spaces were quite popular before the pandemic, where some entrepreneurs would rent an apartment and work together, but I don't know where you'd meet people like that.
Foreign visas are also quite loose. You could get an entrepreneurship visa (see the MDEC site). There's a rapidly growing games and animation industry too, so you might be able to find people you'd like to work with.
It's quite good. Violent crime is low, very unlikely to get kidnapped or stabbed. Robberies and mugging happens but I don't think it's much worse than average.
Healthcare is up to West European standards and is part of the $1000/month. Coronavirus deaths per pop is at #100th rank or so. The current wave is very bad, with daily cases at about 6th globally, but KL area is about 80% adults fully vaccinated now.
Roads are dangerous if you're driving. Corruption is lowish by Asian standards, high by Western standards. It's at a level where you can choose to bribe the nice policeman or report him, but you're unlikely to be arrested on skin color. We don't have many drug lords; organized criminals run government [1] or take on gov contracts.
Would you like statistics instead of anecdotes? A lot don't exist past 2005 or so, and be aware that many official stats abuse statistics [2]. I'm sure you can search the stats yourself, I'm just here to provide a view.
The thing I mentioned about statistics applies. Crimes are underreported in Malaysia. I get the impression they're overreported in the US.
Sometimes it's fairly innocent e.g. a lot of people feel the police are the last resort. People are known to "settle" accidents. Even burglaries; you can have a gentleman's agreement that the robbers will inform all their friends that this house has been robbed and there's nothing left to take, while the victims agree not to tell the cops. Or say, a teenager caught for drugs may not be reported, because the punishment is death. They'll just be expelled, beat up, or let off with a warning.
Foreign visas are also quite loose. You could get an entrepreneurship visa (see the MDEC site). There's a rapidly growing games and animation industry too, so you might be able to find people you'd like to work with.