Regarding the concrete example: IMO these questions have nothing to do with being autistic. They are product 101 questions to ask before jumping into a rash rewrite, and the manager in this example took the author's sensible questions poorly. Speculation: perhaps it was not the content of the questions themselves that set off the manager? IDK.

I'd venture that the majority of mid+ engineers ask these questions out of habit. That is, if such a proposition even makes it to them. A good product manager would ask these questions well before the proposal even made it to engineering.