If personality disorder is just maladaptive traits, there is no such thing as personality disorder.

The diagnosis of personality disorder (PD) is undergoing a transition from a categorical model that distinguishes types from one another to a model that characterizes patients with dimensional profiles. The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.) alternative model of personality disorder (AMPD) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th ed.) have two primary criteria: the first is a dimension that differentiates PD from both normal personality and other kinds of disorder, can be used to indicate the overall level of severity of a patient's functional difficulties, and is the basis for PD diagnosis. The second is a set of traits with structural connections to normal-range personality variables that characterize the type of problems the patient is likely to have. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).