I think there's an issue with how people who aren't autistic themselves perceive autistic people, and it affects both how we get treated and how we get depicted in media.
To somebody without autism who only looks at the surface, a nonverbal level 3 who needs carers and a chatty level 1 with a job aren't the same at all. The level 1 is "just a bit awkward" while the level 3 is "clearly severely disabled".
And they attach almost like this... stigma to the word "autistic", like "ew, no, this person who is just awkward doesn't want to be saddled with the word 'autistic', that word is for real disabled people," and to level twos and threes they're like, "Oh, honey, no, I know you think you're a capable adult who could get that 'aspergers' label, but no, you're autistic, you're disabled, you need looking after, you behave in a way that upsets people, so you don't get to sit at the aspergers table with all those polite, socially acceptable people."
And the problem is that if I have aspergers, I am immediately not in the category of a person who needs any support at all. I'm "just a little awkward" and there's a lot of pressure to maintain that. People don't need to go out of their way to make me comfortable, because I'm not disabled, it's "just aspergers".
Except the problem is, Autism isn't a linear spectrum that goes from "not very autistic" to "very autistic", and having "Aspergers" really just means "Autistic, but in a way where they can be good at masking autistic traits and hiding their discomfort." or "The discomfort is bearable without people needing to alter their treatment of this person in everyday life."
The thing that's going on with me when I have to work under a slightly flickering light, but I bear it, looking slightly miserable as I develop a headache, maybe start to stammer a bit and take frequent loo breaks to silently scream, cry, dig my nails into my thighs all in private to cope with the pain... and the thing that's going on with a level 2 autistic person who will just flat out scream "NO!" about the light, or make humming noises the entire time they're working under it and stops responding when spoken to... it's the same thing. We are BOTH dealing with discomfort from stimulus, and we'd both be happier to not be under that frikkin' light, it's just that I have either less pain, or more remaining presence of mind (perhaps due to being less overstimulated by other things) to either "put up with the pain" or phrase my desire in a socially acceptable way like "hello, excuse me, I'm so sorry to be fussy, but that light is a little uncomfortable, could I move?", which shifts me from the "screaming person who is disabled and unsuitable for jobs" column to the "ugh, kind of awkward, but we can put up with it, I guess" column.
But being in that column is stressful. It makes people think they don't need to make any kind of changes for me, because I'm "just awkward". I turn the stress inwards and it affects my health and performance.
There's this tendency then Neurotypicals think about or depict autistic people, to look at the surface behaviour and then instead of asking autistic people how we feel, they instead work backwards, extrapolating from surface behaviours how the person might be feeling by relating it to what kind of feeling might produce the same behaviours in a NT person.
And that's how we get depictions of autism like Entrapta, who often behaves the right way (not all the time though), but when she describes why she acts that way, it doesn't ring true at all. She'll seem disconnected from reality and it'll be because she's so focused on her love of machines, not because all the stuff going on is completely overwhelming and can't all be processed (which is usually actually what's going on with an autistic person). Or she'll show no emotional reaction to something and it'll be because she doesn't feel any emotional connection not because she's so overwhelmed just feeling the emotion that she doesn't have the capacity to perform the emotion with her face for the benefit of others.
I can see why a person would see me and say "no, no, that's an entirely different sort of being from that person over there who will start screaming if their drink is in the wrong colour cup", because I'm just screaming internally, or screaming silently in the toilets, and you can't see that. Internally though, it's the same feeling of "Oh for god's sake, everything is chaos and I'm really uncomfortable, can I at least just depend on having my tea the same as always in my stripey blue cup!?" In me, it comes out as being fussy and awkward, but in somebody more severely affected by autism, or less able to affect neurotypical communication, it looks very different because it might come out as screaming or "being naughty."
I like the new system because it's based on what's going on under the surface, and removes a lot of the shame from autism. Level 3s might be more capable than you think if you just let them work in a way that's comfortable, even if it looks weird. Level 1s might be suffering from the strain and be happier if you gave them leeway to act "more autistic" when they need to instead of masking all the time to meet expectations.