If you look pass the propaganda, you would realize the so called “land reforms” did very little to improve farmer livelihood, but instead allowed KMT elites and 5 big Taiwanese families that had good connections with the KMT to begin a land grab (Lien family falls in both categories), robbing lands from then Taiwanese middle class.
Farmers actually were doing pretty well under Japanese rule before the war went poorly for the Japanese. Many Taiwanese farmers did even better than farmers in Japan, as the demands for both Taiwanese sugar and rice created a balance that kept the prices up. The lost of the Japanese market post war was a bigger hit to Taiwanese farmers than the rent itself. Both late Japanese and early KMT government also straight up took rice away from the farmers to help with their war efforts, so they were equally terrible in that regard.
While it is a good thing to introduce the concepts of actual contracts (which the KMT didn’t do, but the land reforms did help initiate) and protect farmers from poor harvest due to natural disasters, wiping out the middle class in the process was completely unnecessary.
KMT already attempted the same breaks on farm land rentals in China. KMT land reforms in China changed the split from 50-50 to 62.5% to the farmer and 37.5% to the landowner, and they called it 25 rental break in China, as it takes 25% off the 50% rent. In Taiwan they just called it 375 rental break, as 375 is the highest a land owner could collect from the farmers. It didn’t help them win support from the farmers, and instead also alienated land owners.
In Taiwan, the land reforms post 1951 were met with little resistance because the Taiwanese public already saw what the KMT is capable of during 1947’s 228 massacre.