Thought experiment: would you mind stepping up in severity?

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Well let's see. We have no idea what autism even is. So we have no idea if increasing severity would make people more or less capable of dealing with the world. And there is no real basis for HFA and LFA, nor for the idea that "Asperger" is less severe than "HFA". Then the fact that there can be huge differences between people in each category and huge similarities between people put into each category. Add to this the fact that I see myself as a person without a functioning label (despite what it might say in my records, where if they say anything at all they say LF or severe for reasons unknown to me) the question makes no sense.

But would I rather be a different sort of autistic? Maybe. It depends. Generally I think we are who we are and should not be someone different than we are. How can I imagine being the kind of word-bound autistic I often meet online when the very idea of living in wordland makes my head hurt (and ditto the large group of autistics that even at their most overloaded can still recognize objects rather than just patterns of sensation)? I can't imagine being them because they are comfortable in situations I associate with massive brain pain. I guess they can't imagine being me either. So how can I decide if I can't imagine what someone's life is like?

Meanwhile I could switch arbitrary functioning labels and other formal classifications and still be close to identical inside. Why? Because they are arbitrary classifications. The autistics I most identify with have every diagnosis and functioning label possible. Many of us are separated by a hair's breadth in either neurology, physiology, or life circumstance. So perhaps changing functioning labels can require no change at all. In which case fine with me. Sometimes the label you get is a function of who diagnosed you rather than who you are. This is why it is wrong to assume so much.