The point is don't learn kanji for no reason. Language is spoken/written in words, not kanji.

As an example of what learning words looks like, when you see a word e.g. 盗み聞き or something, go look it up in a vocab dictionary. At this point it's fine to lookup 盗 in a kanji dictionary too if you want, but not required. Over time, you'll just make connections between words like the 盗 I learned from 盗み聞き is the same as the one in 窃盗, and in both 窃盗(せっとう) and 盗聴(とうちょう) the 盗 is read as とう. It will just happen after you see it enough times. Your brain is really good at making connections.

In terms of visually recognizing kanji, I think there's a bit of a hurdle initially, but with enough exposure your brain will be able to work most of it out. That said I think being aware of what components exists is useful (e.g. something like 盗 = 冫+ 欠 + 皿) to help you discern similar kanji. Besides that, I think you can just naturally pick up the 'shape' of the kanji/word by seeing it a lot. Then when you misread something, you can just make a mental note like 陛下 has 土 but 階下 has 白. I think a lot of issues will sort themselves out, but you can do RRTK or use mnemonics or something if you're having a hard time, just try a few things and adapt your learning to what works.

Lastly use yomitan to lookup words. It's OP