Having used Wanikani for a few months, I have started to dislike learning vocabulary through hiragana. I now borderline cannot learn vocab without having the kanji to look at.
Anyone else noticing side effects?
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Oh I absolutely think I struggle without kanji a lot of the time. In so many cases my brain has to work backwards from the kanji to get into the meaning of words I “know” (even in words that don’t feel very related to their kanji, the way they’re stored for me). It’s quite a weakness for listening, but I’m just hoping over the very long run of encountering them over and over I’ll get stronger, quicker connections to their sounds alone. I think it’s natural – the kanji is another datapoint to connect the meaning to. Something we’ll both inevitably have to get better at, but maybe for now just celebrate that you are well past the stage of kanji being a mental hurdle.
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Yup. The second stage of that particular affliction is after you start reading and then notice when they use a kanji for a word that’s usually in hiragana and it will feel just as weird. 
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When I took the N4 years ago, it was murder for me xD I just barely passed, no idea how, but I couldn’t read anything! There was so little kanji, and my WK level was too high, I was OVER prepared for the test, to the point where it was detrimental, haha.
Hilariously, everyone during the breaks were lamenting about the kanji being so difficult, and I was the only one there like, “The KANJI?! What kanji?!” 
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Using only WK as a study tool can affect that, but by going to japanese classes and reading a bit more material, I’ve found its not so bad. I don’t know how to explain it, but learning kanji makes the hiragana only words stand out more and you’ll usually notice it soon.
Plus, most of them do have kanji, and some are still used instead of the hiragana, so if learning with the kanji is easier to you, you can just do that. Remember to stick a note that its more common in hiragana though
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If you wanna get better at understanding vocab as kana agan, I suggest working on your listening comprehension as that’s “all in kana”. 
^>^
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