If anything, I'd be tempted to say that autism is a more pronounced degree of asperger's

That seems to me to be basically equivalent to saying that aspergers is a lesser form of autism. Again, sorry I can't find the links at the moment, but I recall reading several articles suggesting that the two might actually not be related at all, neurologically.

The whole idea of neurodiversity is kind of exciting, actually. If there can be more than one way to appropriately interact with society, everyone gets richer.

I agree. Unfortunately, modern culture and institutions (like the public education system for one notable example) don't seem to be set up based on this premise.