WI: Wang Mang is more competent

IOTL, Wang Mang was a chinese emperor notable for having usurped the Han dynasty's throne for 14 years, founding the brief Xin dynasty (9-23 AD). He assumed the royal title as the Jujun Emperor.
He was notable for having implemented interesting reforms, such as an income tax, a "sloth tax" for unproductive land, and limitations on the size of the nobility's estates, with any excedent being redistributed.
It is said that Wang based his reforms on the system of the older Zhou dynasty.
However, most historians state that he commited a few mistakes:
-He devoted most of his time to poetry, philosophy, and studying the old Zhou leaving most state affairs partially neglected. When he did govern, he made practically all decisions by himself, which left him mentally fatigued. It is said that he was suspicious of his subordinates, and that they would usurp the throne in case Wang allowed them enough power.
-His reorganization of the provinces was confusing.
-For reasons obscure to me, he decided to increase the ammount of currency types of the empire from one to forty.
-He promised to reform the salary of the army, but ended up procrastinating. The transition from the old system to the new was frozen, and the Xin dynasty's army went unpaid for fourteen years.
-He pissed off the "barbarian" tribes outside China's core territory, especially the Xiongnu.
Wang Mang was finally overthrown in 23 AD, and the Han dynasty was restored.
So, i ask:
Could Wang's reforms, to their core essence, have helped China in the long run, if he was smarter in implementing them? And were they truly implementable as lasting reforms, considering the resistance some of them faced?
For how long could the Xin dynasty have lasted?
 
Relevant:
So does anyone here know about the interim period between the two Han dynasties (9 CE to 27 CE)? Particularly the war period following the fall of Wang Mang (23 CE)? Are there any good potential PoDs in this time that would lead significantly change Chinese national culture and history over the next two centuries? As an example, could the Lulin or Chimei (Red Eyebrows) hold onto power; and even if they could, would any of these factions doing so look so different from OTL's Eastern Han Dynasty?

Is there potential here?

CONSOLIDATE: Some potential ideas:
  • Mother Lu lives a few more years (doesn't die 18 CE)
  • Emperor Genshi sucessfully restores the dynasty; the Red Eyebrows don't rebel a second time
  • the Red Eyebrows sucessfully install their puppet emperor
Those potential PoDs do strike me as the best available options especially if you're not well read on the subject. That said an imperial restoration would inevitably have been followed by another revolt due to the instabilities created by the Han. There's not really a clear off-switch for what followed, but you can obviously take one or two options that there's a bit more writing about and go with it. Odds are any dynasty you get in at that point is going to be exceptionally short lived.

Any recommendations for researching this particular period?

Could you elaborate on this? After all, Guangwu consolidated power in 27 CE, just a few years after Gengshi overthrew Wang Mang, and he managed to hold power for thirty years and found the Later Han Dynasty.
 
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