Reproduction steps:
1. Open the attached “ReproProj” project
2. Open the “Assets/Scenes/SampleScene.unity“ Scene
3. Enter the Play Mode

Expected result: The Play Mode is entered and “MissingReferenceException” error is shown
Actual result: The Editor crashes

Reproducible with: 2023.1.0b17
Not reproducible with: 2021.3.43f1, 2022.3.43f1, 6000.0.16f1
Fixed in: 2023.1.0b18

Reproducible on: Windows 10
Not reproducible on: No other environment tested

Workaround: Reasign the GameObject which has been incorrectly serialized 

First few lines of the stack trace:
{noformat}
0x00007FF8501696EC (Unity) GameObject::IsActive
0x00007FF8501649B5 (Unity) GameObject::ActivateAwakeRecursivelyInternal
0x00007FF850164883 (Unity) GameObject::ActivateAwakeRecursively
0x00007FF85016C5EF (Unity) GameObject::SetSelfActive
0x00007FF84F950E07 (Unity) GameObject_CUSTOM_SetActive_Injected
0x0000017C9DF851E5 (Mono JIT Code) (wrapper managed-to-native) UnityEngine.GameObject:SetActive_Injected (intptr,bool){noformat}