>I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once.

You meant to write "faking it" here, right?

But how was the "former situation much worse"?

Surely lumping aspergers into the same general name of "autism" (like is the case now), makes it even more likely to be accused of being a fake when saying you have autism, as you wouldn't fit the stereotype of the high support needs person they have in mind (whereas people already understood that someone with asperger will not look "outwardly effected" like that).

It’s much better because I can say to some random, say, nurse that I have autism and they a general idea. Of things that are likely to be challenging for me.

Sure, but you could say aspergers before, and they'd have an ever better idea (as autism is too wide a spectrum). And doctors and nurses at least can grasp ASD 1, 2, 3 and so on, laymen, not so much.

That was never my experience. It was, for most of it's existence as a diagnosis, not well known at all outside of psychs and developmental people.