To address your question about high functioning and masking. Those definitely do not imply a "desaturated autism", such is simply a social perception from outsiders.
Somewhere within the values of their colour wheel there is potential to develop certain skills. Some of those skills may as you say blend in either because they are the same skill or they developed an unique skill that is perceived as normalcy.
Different situations require different skills, being in a classroom is different from being at home, a dinner party or having to take the bus.
Some kids may have it easier to be perceived as high functional in your class because they have matching skills. But are unable to function in any other situations. They are masking in the sense that you are unable to perceive that they do not function the same way in situations where you are not there. In fact your personal experience may make your an easier person to talk to and create a bias of seeing higher functions. I know an example of someone who functioned very well in school, never was suspected of being related to autism, believed they where normal themselves, had a friend group, good grades. Then ended up in a mental facility months after graduating because they had no way of understanding how life worked or how to maintain there current social relations beyond the very rigid and rule based nature of the school they had been going to.
The kids who developed their own skills may appear not recognizable within this group but may actual suffer an intense energy drain that you can't see. Potentially crashing some other times. They are masking what i would call a form of imposer syndrome. They only show what they know you will accept as normal. For me this means showing results and hiding the methods. I am biased to call this group highly (differently) functional because i am a part of it. But my experience is that people genuinely often do not understand my natural flow of reasoning and constructive thinking to the point of dismissal and ridicule. But i have learned how to frame my results in a form that they will recognize as the correct answer (even if i feel that answer is barely acceptably accurate).
There are times i am so drained and so low i stop being able to form sentences properly and people who don't know me well will look at me like i am clearly intellectually challenged (i am reasoning perfectly fine within my mind, i don't need language to do so), then other times i impress someone with something basic and now they expect me to be a genius every single task. This is the "why" the distinctions of mild or severe is harmful. Correct functioning is always bound to a context to function within.
Its hard to explain hiding methods because they depend on the situation. Its much easier as an adult then as a child because i am not questioned as much.
On my job i can work mostly independently and have acquired positive credibility.
I’ll give you a pattern i distinctly remember from school.
Pre context: I was always unable to concentrate to the live lesson that was occurring i still cant do phone calls for the same reason. Because i often still stared in the right direction this was more frequently not noticed (though enough to still have the label). Then when we had to do a task i suddenly notice everyone moving and i had no idea what the class even about.
But i was very good at independently interpreting the knowledge in a given handbook or on a blackboard, very quickly. So in the beginning i was able to catch up and start on the assignment during this same time and eventually i started to secretly learn independently during the class.
I have 2 distinct memories of situations that occurred as a result.
i was scolded multiple times for not paying attention, which did happen frequently but now was because i was obviously looking in the book and writing when i was supposed to listen. But from my perspective i was paying attention to the source material actively doing my best to understand it. That really broke something me.
we got a new math teacher in middle of the year. They gave us a test but apparently my class was not yet taught the formulas required. This only came to light when someone complained as we got the graded test back. The teacher singled my test out as proof that we had already seen it because “i” did have the correct answer… My class was not happy.
For the record i have never been able to memorize any mathematical formula. Instead i use the question to estimate a possible answer, reverse engineer a formula from the deducted answer to then solve the problem normally. In some way this will pattern on its own where i first solve it my own way in order to understand what other people expected and then writing down those expectations is a form of masking and hiding.
On my job i am selective to who i let in on certain “shortcuts” and alternative flows that i discovered.
If this reply lacks sense, i typed it in 3 parts over the course of hours.