[aDyslecticCrow]

> presence of too many/particular ones of them is notably disabling for certain tasks

Setting asside the very clear science of neurodevelopmental causes, in practice your description is very helpful way to describe it.

(Ive often myself described it as a standard deviation beyond 2 sigma in a normal distribution with 500 dimensions.)

The traits associated with autism are naturally present in the population in healthy and useful ways.

Matching a large fraction of the definition may pose no problem for alot of people. But another smaller deviation in another sub permutation may be detrimental to live a normal life.

So it's really difficult to draw a line between "condition" that need assistance and just outlier human that like trains.

I mildly match a significant fraction of the diagnostic criteria myself, but have had a rather easy time. I don't need special resources, and feel wierd to count under a medical term.

But recognising the traits of ASD had allowed me to find quite a lot of good practical advice that improve my life significantly. So the broad definition has been helpful.