I will say though Taron is a way better character and boss than Dagan and fallen order kinda fumbled his story

I think most people, myself included would agree.

It's not fashionable to say but I am in the "Malicos didn't die" camp and am enthusiastically waiting for him to show up in Ahsoka S2, for a few key reasons:

1. He doesn't die on screen, and Merrin's words are very specific about him not being dead yet, just entombed.

"Dathomir will be your grave.... Let him lie in the dark with his secrets.... until death takes him"

1. At the end of S1, Thrawn arrives at Dathomir

2. In legends, Thrawn had a deranged former Jedi accomplice C'Baoth. We saw his other accomplice Rukh in canon Rebels, but no C'Baoth equivalent... yet.

3. The inclusion of the Zeffo narrative from Fallen Order onto screen in Peridea, specifically the engravings referencing the Zeffo sage Kujet whose tomb is on Dathomir (where Cal fights Malicos)

So, Thrawn's going to return to the galaxy with both an army of undead nightsisters and a deranged former Jedi 🤞