Android does this too. I am in several group chat's with Android users and their reactions are also sent the same way.

You can like a message a page up, for example, and you’ll get a random “user liked your message” and be completely lost.

True. There's no solution to this that appeals to everyone. Personally, it wouldn't bother me at all to not know which message got "liked" (because "liking" something doesn't really say anything that important), but I can see how it could be important to others.