My DD is PG with Asperger's, dx under the new rules, and yes, she totally does that all the time. But that's just ONE social lapse and she also does a lot of other relatively clueless & Aspergersy stuff. (Poor eye contact, poor reciprocal conversation skills, obsessed with cats...) I do think there's often a fine line because other parents of very gifted kids I know were the people who were MOST skeptical about her dx because yeah, there seem to be a lot of weird behaviors that are common to both groups.
I don't know if it's harder to be diagnosed by DD was NOT dx during her big evaluation in Kindergarten, when she saw PhD clinicians at a University clinic. She was dx before 2nd by a neuropsychiatrist with a lot of experience with highly gifted children.
That said, if social lapses are affecting her ability to make or keep friends, it's still something you might want to pursue even if it IS common for HG kids.
She has other signs in addition to this one, but I can't discern if they're caused by anxiety, introverted behavior, sensory.... etc. She just struggles with making friends. The only friends that work for her are if they're a couple of years older than her, or younger than her (so she can direct them). Her play style is pretty intense and kids her age aren't usually receptive to it.
