New theory on ASD capacity to comprehend non-verbal

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I've recently looked at a couple of articles from psych researchers who validated a hypothesis that kids on the spectrum are able to comprehend body language per se (i.e. not involving the face or tone) as well as their typically-developing (TD) peers. And that this perpetuates into adult life without any discernible regression. From my own anecdotal experience, this was certainly how I can recall things in my mind's eye; I could tell if someone was fearful or frustrated or angry or what-have-you by their posture (i.e. hunched shoulders, a certain stiffness, or head to hand in some way...) it was just the face and the eyes that were a mystery.

On that note, there's this theory that's been bandied around that you may have heard of; people on the spectrum DO have some capacity to recognize facial expressions and the "look in the eyes" that NTs do effortlessly... it's that early on in life, they enter a vicious spiral where they are afraid to look in someone's eyes because it's usually a negative look, like one of derision, anger, contempt, or malicious sarcasm (like the typical meathead bully, who sadly persist into one's 20s - less frequent but less inhibited towards violent crime against you, like sociopaths ) . This is 100% my experience, I learned that looking in the eyes was emotionally painful and this persisted during my teens. This is clearly a "death spiral" that privileged NTs don't fall into.

If perhaps we had better sense of pragmatics and motor skills etc., maybe we wouldn't get these withering looks from others so often and we would have been more inclined to make eye contact. It's like one problem from the "Aspie suite" compounded another, sending us further into that "death spiral". It doesn't help when people shout abuse or names at you from an honest mistake or mishap where you're making a concerted effort, but then demoralized.

Now in my late 40s, I can say that since my 2001 diagnosis I've gotten much better at recognizing and responding to emotions in the eyes, even pre-diagnosis when I sensed something was wrong, I can recall some incidents where I did this, like in interactions with women. Knowing that sooner would have gotten me further in successful interactions, in avoiding "false negatives" where she wasn't into me, and "false positives" where I made a bit of a fool out of myself in not detecting a bored or uncomfortable look in a girl's eyes at the club, and peers admonished or ridiculed me for it a couple of times (this one meathead bully or "Chad" who was watching a failed interaction as such then made sarcastic comments that I'm great with women, and that this girl "over there" keeps looking at me and wants me )