If Burton just likes unique characters, I would expect that he would have given us a range of characters who have a broad variety of characteristics - maybe an ADD character in one movie or a depressive in another, but it seems to me that many of Burton's most memorable male main characters are both of the very smart but alienated autist type, and are to a degree autobiographical. One of my favourite lines from a Burton movie is this one:

"You can't run a chocolate factory with a family hanging over you like an old dead goose... no offense.”

The movie that this is from had family estrangement as a strong (but parodied) theme. It is a well-documented fact that Burton has issues with his family of origin.

I believe Burton wrote a book that is autobiograpical, and I think there is a lot of personal stuff in it. I haven't read it because in their wisdom, the state library service where I live never got that book into stock anywhere in the state.

I personally don't believe a screenwriter or an author can create an autistic character that has any degree of life in it unless that writer has some degree of autism themself. We have all seen way too many terrible, cardboard-cutout, DSM-inspired autistic characters in movies and novels. In my opinion most of the best autistic characters are ones that weren't explicitly labelled as such.