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The thing about most locations in the game is that ultimately they are irrelevant. And nothing demonstrates this more than the force at Kota Bharu, as it can be easily bypassed and has no intrinsic value of its own (okay, actually, now that I think of it Fuzhou also demonstrates this)

There are three key locations in Malaya, namely Singapore, the capital, Kuala Lumpur, the alternate capital, and Penang, which has a unit that does not capitulate when Malaya does (i.e. the fighters). However, Kota Bharu is a position that can be bypassed on the way to Kuala Lumpur, and once Malaya capitulates, which only involves Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, that position disappears too.
With that out of the way, we can now move onto the Johor strategy, as depicted in the image below; you get a quicker Malaya clear in SC WiTP by attacking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore directly, instead of the historical line of events with the landing at Kota Bharu. As you can also see, a similar principle applies to the Philippines, although this cannot be quick since the US has the MPPs to reinforce unlike the British. Despite the differences, there is one principle shared among them: a critical unit is made useless, leaving the actual target isolated.
In short, it is like island hopping but with a severe intel edge (because the game start is always the same) and on land. Ignore what can be disposed by other means, and press forward the attack only on the most critical points.

Speaking of Fuzhou, yes, this is another example of this strategy, as Fuzhou can be easily isolated just by garrisoning the neighboring cities. However, there is a trick; you can send the Fuzhou army to the Philippines, where the US direly needs someone to replace the North Luzon corps. It's a daring move, but with allied naval power your chances aren't as bleak as it seems.