Taipei is 75 miles from the epicenter, of course it was less intense there. The city of Hualien is about 10 miles from the epicenter, and some smaller towns almost on top of it.
Not sure why you feel the need to downplay the severity of this quake. It was a big one.
Big magnitude but low intensity , just emphasizing that fact . We get 4/5 intensity quakes all the time in Japan and they cause little to no big problems . Just yesterday had a 6.1 / 5 intensity quake in Iwate , Japan . No major problems . Next thing the Americans will be blaming China for the quake .