I agree with all of this.
As I've said before, it would be one thing if MD made the distinction that if she were in Abbie's place, this is how SHE (MD) would feel about it. But she's asserting that she knows for a fact what Abbie is thinking and feeling.
Yes, having ASD makes her better able to understand a lot of things more than the average NT person. But, as you said, she is just making guesses, observations, and drawing her own conclusions watching the vid just like anybody else could.
Also, in the description of MD's videos, she has described herself as having alexithymia.
Alexithymia is a personal trait characterized by the subclinical inability to identify and describe emotions experienced by one's self or others. The core characteristics of alexithymia are marked dysfunction in emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relating. Furthermore, people with alexithymia have difficulty in distinguishing and appreciating the emotions of others, which is thought to lead to unempathic and ineffective emotional responding. Alexithymia occurs in approximately 10% of the population and can occur with a number of psychiatric conditions as well as any neurodevelopmental disorder.
She also states that she has various detachment and dissociative impairments (inability to connect / attach to people and animals).
This confuses me. How is she then able to so deeply empathize and sympathize with Abbie??
Maybe someone can explain it to me because those things seem to be at odds with each other.