I'm a medical practitioner and that sounds a little silly to me too. I don't diagnose autism, though. I leave that to the paediatricians. The main reason that diagnosis is a big deal here is it's related to funding packages. I suspect that's also why ability comes into it.

The other thing is that autism is somewhat nebulous and it's in part a condition of not being able to cope socially in this world. So because of this, it makes sense what GP was saying.

I'm glad I don't need to diagnose autism. Severe is easy to see from 100m away. Borderline would be a coin toss.