"Potentially fatal aquatic life"? AFAIK there are no critters in the Maldives that you couldn't also encounter anywhere else in SE Asia or the Pacific. If you're afraid of being eaten by a shark or something, rest assured the lagoons of Maldivian atolls are too shallow for anything big enough to eat you to cruise around comfortably.

And at the end of the day, there are no substitutes for the Maldives in SE Asia. Sure, there are hotels in Malaysia and Thailand with awesome beaches and/or overwater bungalows, but they're not set on deserted little atolls so they're just not quite the same.