I understand where you’re coming from I went through changes and overhauls the first time around a few years ago that at some point were too much to handle with the way I used Wanikani which made it easier to just quit using it at the time (and life and the pandemic but that is beside the point).
I know those update look like sabotage, but I don’t see them as such because translation is fickle and when you focus on wanikani meanings prompts as gospel, you are missing the fact that the english translation is just an aid and not your real goal when learning another language, the sooner you break that attachment the better, otherwise every change will be significant while in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a drop in the ocean and doesn’t really affect Japanese as a whole. The end goal when you learn a new language is to be able to think in the language itself in a way that it lives independently of your mother tongue or the language you use to mediate it (in this case we’re speaking about english).
The structure of what ever you use for learning is just a structure and not the language itself.
Also in my case the change they did with 想 made so much sense even though I’ve already learned it, you can read about it here if you’re interested, as well as the explanation of why they made the change
And again, I know the change is hard because we tend to stick to the habit we build when we learn new things, but disruption is good for learning, and it’s what makes you go beyond comfortable which makes you expend your horizons, and I can’t stress enough how expending your horizons is what learning a new language is all about.
(Just for context, english is not my mother tongue, and it doesn’t resemble in any shape or form not the way it is spoken or written nor its grammar structure the way it conjugates, nothing. If I had material for learning Japanese in my language it would have been so much easier, but there is close to none. I am able to think independently in English, I don’t translate when I use it. That is the goal with Japanese as well.
You’ll see a lot of extra meanings and readings in dictionaries for a lot of items you see on wanikani anyway, so remembering it’s not everything and expending your resource material can also help make wanikani updates impact less crucial to your overall interaction with the language itself. It’s a journey, it’s not easy, but it is possible.