My familiarity is that autistic people often experience heightened empathy not on the simulation/experiential divide but a difference in self other relations. That is, the autistic approach to intentionality places themselves verbatim in the position of the other, rather than the allistic which replaces themselves with the other.

I think given the normative social allistic approach, the autistic person generally has a higher pressure to over develop their ability to compensate. Additionally, as this process uses the self as referent, it is less swayed by differences in the other and more prone to being activitated.

I believe that this is neither good nor bad, but the austistic person often suffers on people's assumption of being able to choose where their empathy is directed, and doubly due the effects of this trait. Things like strong, real, emotional connections to inanimate objects are an instance of this that can both cause suffering or joy, but socially can be a burden.

Thus I can fully believe that your approach is functional and high performing. And that others are often flawed by it. There's an innate integrity in it, because you put yourself directly "in the shit" when you do it. I wouldn't discount it as Machiavellian or as dissociative. Could it be that the dissociation is the cost, not the cause?