This might be a slight tangent to the topic at hand, but personally, I found that learning vocabulary written in kana through a textbook system was very helpful. The textbook I picked also taught grammar and let me practice it all with writing and speaking exercises. I started WaniKani on the first day of my Japanese learning journey, and I’ve been learning for about three months in total now.
In the first few stages of WaniKani I found myself frustrated that I could not remember the readings of the kanji, or differentiate it from the vocabulary words. After learning about 1,000 words in kana (with the ability to recognize a handful of them in kanji form too) I came back to WaniKani. Now when I come across a kanji reading I go “Oh, that’s like this word that I know,” thus, the reading sticks much easier. In my case, more is more. The more I use a word, the more I’ll remember it. This spaced repetition system is fine and all, but I don’t use it as my primary source for vocabulary. For me, WaniKani’s best feature is the way each new kanji builds upon the previous ones and the radicals, so I mainly use it for review and to help me organize the things I know.