Adding another data point(s) there: I opened two HK companies (with much the same reasoning as you did), about 5-6 years ago and again about a year ago. The first time was smooth and the bank account happened without a meeting (at HSBC) although I didn't use the structure and folded it a year later.

The second time was a lot less smooth, I had to fly to Hong Kong to meet HSBC, and after they took a relatively annoying processing fee and grilled me on my business model (IT consulting), rejected my application with no explanation about 3 months later. The agent told us most foreigners were routinely declined these days although they didn't know why.

We thus opened a company in the UK instead (yes, it's still a great offshore location!). Fast (minutes on the Companies House website), cheap (< 100 GBP?) but the bank (Lloyds) hit us with a fraud check which months later is still not resolved, despite reams of paperwork travelling around and notaries public making a small fortune in certifying documents, and my co-founder being a UK resident. Lloyds asked us for more information than the Singapore Government did for my PR (equivalent to US green card) application. Since you can't do business on a personal bank account if you have a UK Ltd, that structure is basically inactive.