special interest = more depth?

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I don't understand, personally, how something can be a special interest beyond the fact that you spend a lot of time on it.
To me I am going to be interested in something and be able to focus on that thing, or I am not interested in it and will barely be able to focus on it. At first I just took the concept of 'special interest' as people have described it, more in-depth focus on it somehow. But the more I think about it the more that doesn't fit my perception of focus, and I don't have reason to believe at this point in time that my perception of what focus is, is wrong.

It makes sense to me that a special interest only exists because there is nothing else the person is interested in. The constant focus is probably self-sustaining to a degree, and there's another degree of lack of ability to task-switch, and I also think (although not really supported anywhere that I've seen) that an autisitc's perception is different such that what they are paying attention to might be different aspects of that thing than if an allistic spent that much time with that subject.

Maybe I'm not saying anything new, and maybe I was just not perceiving how people described it properly, but I do not think that an autistic's interest is any more different beyond that individual's regular perceptual differences and time spent focussing on it. I do not think that there is any more deeper focus than what an allistic has for any of their interests.

I think that's why our special interests can change.