I was in denial about being autistic for around a decade after I first had suspicion because of exactly the reasoning you provide.

To provide some insight to my experience is that I had to manually decode all the non-verbal communication with logic while keeping track of the verbal stuff and monitoring my own expression back when I was masking. That shit is exhausting. Masking isn’t just picking a personality to wear based on the occasion, it’s doing that while it doesn’t come naturally and consciously tweaking behavior. Jokes on us, we give of the uncanny valley vibes when do that because it “feels off”.

If there’s something loud around me I will intensely try to hear what people say to me but I just can’t because the surrounding is louder.

I was so bad at throwing and kicking balls that I was made fun of despite actually practicing both football and handball.

I went to sleep scared for a long time because I imagined people breaking in because of slightest squeek in the house.

It’s also hard to explain how easy it is to have conversations with other autistic people vs normies.