SE Asia is a rather big place but I suppose it's a combination of:

- low cost of living

- pleasant climate

- decent infrastructure

- interesting, diverse culture

- being generally welcoming to foreigners (to those with somewhat big pockets at least)

You get some of those traits in many other non-South-East-Asian countries as well but all of them combined is a pretty rare occurrence.

Pretty much most of Latin America satisfies all of this. I wonder why it is not more popular among nomads, maybe because fame of high rates of crime?

That could be a reason.

Linguistically at least Latin America should be much more accessible to most people.

latin america has terrible crime rates. yet, there are decent digital nomad communities in mexico, colombia and argentina

The digital community was lacking, but I spent time in Costa Rica and found it very safe, inviting, and beautiful.

I was in a very small surf town on the Pacific coast with a strong ex-pat presence.

central america has entirely different vibe, for worse. yeah, costa rica seemed safe though, but not quite so other central american countries