everyone has forgotten that fascism was originally quite a good socialist agrarian reform policy

First, let's assume that Mussolini effectively coined the term Fascist. (His ``original'' political party (he had earlier been a fairly high-ranking member of the Italian Socialist party), the Fascisti, is what the term is based on.) It seems apparent from Mussolini's history, both before and after his rise to power, that he didn't have any cohesive plan. It was all based on immediate opportunism. It would seem that the term Fascism has been placed on nationalist totalitarian regimes because of what it quickly developed into after Victor Emmanuel presented Mussolini dictatorial powers to run Italy. I think it gained a fairly precise generic definition precisely because it was so amorphous before, whereas Naziism was very precise from the get-go.

In reality, that form of government wasn't so bad other than Mussolini's odd forays into expansionism, probably largely because the Italians were simply not going to have any of that oppression, so it just didn't happen. And I think that it might have lasted a much longer time if it hadn't gotten caught up with the Nazis. Of course, the factors that led to the rise of both the Fascists and the Nazis are almost all derived from the Treaty of Versailles, so it was probably inevitable.