Autism is real, as I suffer from it and it has had very real, detrimental impact on my quality of life. I think some mental illness deniers conflate overdiagnosis with non-existence, same way certain users conflate race pill with "whites can't be incel." They're both wrong, and entirely missing the point, and it doesn't do those who actually suffer any favors.
It's bad enough having these advocate groups putting out a poor image of us, mistreating us, misrepresenting us, and even in some cases, *cough* AutismSpeaks *cough*, encouraging mothers to kill their autistic offspring, perhaps. Having the overdiagnosis of the illness, especially to those who are clearly not sufferers, just so (((big pharma))) can push more of their bullshit drugs and make more money just makes it all worse, as it appears to those who don't suffer from autism that it's all a fake scam, or setup, or poor parenting. I was, in fact, beat when I was a child growing up. Believe me, it's not lack of discipline. But those types will never understand.