He embraced that concept in the same way a lot of people do, as a perceived superpower of being smart. Note he particularly claimed to have Asperger's nearly a decade after the DSM removed it as a distinct diagnosis. People flocked to Asperger's as a self diagnosis of "Autism light, I'm an asshole, but it's ok because I have a condition, but I don't have any real downsides because it's not 'full' Autism".

Now with it gone as an official diagnosis, people still embrace high functioning autistic as some sort of badge of honor/superpower and explanation for why they can be assholes. So you continue to have ton of people self-diagnosing to rationalize a more comfortable, lazy interaction with the world. "neurodivergent" is cool because it has the word "divergent" in it, and who would be so lame as to be "neurotypical", which is used almost as a slur among folks eager to self-diagnose autism.

In short, I'm not particularly inclined to put much stock in anyone's self-proclamation of autistic. I've seen people struggling with it for real and I frankly find it a bit offensive how a lot of internet people have flocked to bragging about their "autism" given how much struggle people have with the condition.