Me and many others. I went there for 11 days and was on Peters Hughes Ocean Dancer Live Aboard Dive Boat, or as the Maldivians refer to them Dive Safaris. There are many Live Aboards to choose from in the Maldives. Of course if you don't dive, then you are probably not interested although we had one non-diver on board. BTW, incredible diving and incredible yacht.

The LAX-LHR/LGW-MLE scenario is the ONLY way to get to MLE on OW, but as others have said difficult to get LGW-MLE in J.

I am currently in the midst of a OW RTW trip (at home right now) and back in March that trip took me to SIN for 5 days. I then did a non-stop return *A J award (using UA miles) on SQ from SIN to MLE. A paid J return ticket SIN-MLE on SQ runs about $2000, a return ticket in Y about $830. SIN-MLE is a 4.5 hour flight. The other option is to do LAX-HKG-CMB as suggested by others with a separate return CMB-MLE ticket on SriLankan Airlines which runs about $300 in Y and $700 in J.

BTW, Singapore is absolutely fantastic and well worth a stop if you go that route. They just opened up the new Sands Resort there which from the pictures I have seen is incredible. Raffles is also nice with a lot of history. I considered the Ritz Carlton, but ended up at the Marriott which was very nice, excellent lounge, and nicely situated on Orchard Road.

FYI
LAX-LHR/LGW-MLE 10759 miles
LAX-HKG-CMB-MLE 10233 miles
LAX-HKG-SIN-MLE 10963 miles