How will you distinguish between a non-autistic 'experiencing an autistic associated experience to a lesser degree' and, well, someone experiencing a lesser degree of autism?

I'm not sure that those categories are naturally distinguishable, actually - there's a fair bit of controversy over whether there's a smooth spectrum between very autistic individuals and very NT individuals, and such datapoints could be taken as evidence for that theory. Whether the NT-leaning-toward-autistic portion of that spectrum (assuming it exists, which I believe it does) manifests in single examples of significant autistic-type experiences in otherwise NT people vs. multiple slightly autistic-leaning traits (or both) is also interesting.

I tend not to spell that kind of thing out unless asked, though - not everyone reacts well to overt suggestions that they might be autistic-leaning because of some trait. 'NT with a quirk' is much more palatable.