Never say the words “I am a digitial nomad” or “I am a remote worker” at immigration or you will have a bad time. You are a tourist.

Actually, the 3-4 times I’ve been to Malaysia they have barely asked me anything.

I use data sims locally, but keep an active Google Fi account (about $25 per month). You can get your SMS messages via the web interface (messages.google.com). This does not require the sim to be active on the phone. Or even in a phone. Never had any issues with SMS/banks/authenticators, etc. To be clear, this is the only thing I use the line for. I’m not using my Fi account for international roaming. As far as they know, I’m still in the US with the phone off in a drawer.