My knee jerk reaction to learning these two kanji is why did they put them in the same level?
When you look at the wanikani meanings they use the words type, and kind, in both entries.
“eat rice of every type, kind, and category.”
“you know it’s a different kind. Not all types of grains”
I’ve found this in a few different pairs and find it really confusing. In my head, without any further context, those two meanings are exactly the same. Are these kanji effectively synonyms for each other, or is wanikani just being lazy (sorry in advance wanikani) here?
Both of them tend to appear in other compounds (unless used with a different meaning, like for instance 種 also means たね, seed). So there’s not much need be able to identify their differences mid-sentence on their own or something. You can answer “type” for both of them in kanji reviews if you want.
The key info you need to remember is that they are used to classify things, rather than the specific classification words that get associated in English, because that will vary by field or area of study anyway.
The reason they appear at the same time is because they appear most often, by far, in the word 種類. If you were going to teach these kanji but not teach that word, it would feel a little strange.