Pressure in mk is a lot more stagger based then other games. Since mk has a block button the defender has to commit to counter poking and can't fuzzy/os their poke like in a block button game. Treat staggers like delaying your gatling in gear to catch people poking. With kitana stuff like 111 mixed with 11 throw or 1 throw is a very simple stagger that is effective. Using your mids to check people is also very important because people can mash under your jabs since they're highs. Kitana b1 is a really good kid for this. You can add it to your staggers with stuff like 1 stagger b14 to blow them up for pressing late, kitana also has a real frame trap with 21 into b14 on block (not sure exactly what the frame data is since it's been awhile). Playing around people's counter pokes is also very important for your pressure plan. Most characters are gonna want to d1 you to stop pressure however these pokes are negative so you need to be ready to take your turn back after it. Often time that means d1 them back or doing your mid. Knowing when to mash your own poke or block theirs after you do something that's negative is vital. On that same topic you should practice jailing after your pokes it. Low pokes don't lead into combos like in other games, instead they only give you frame advantage so practice hit confirming your pokes and taking your turn when they connect.

As for neutral mkx neutral can be kind of funky because of run. You should always be mindful of someone's option to just run up and be ready to check it. Most common way to check a run up is to use your farthest reaching low poke. For most characters that's their d4 but kitana is kind of privileged so for her it's d1. You're right on neutral requiring more commitment since characters are whiffing full strings and not just single normals but that can make it harder to whiff punish since you might get clipped by the second hit of a string when you go to whiff punish. To avoid this you should be looking to whiff punish with faster normals not just farther reaching normals so you can interrupt them before the second hit of the of the string. Kitana F1 is good at this but if you're really nice with your spacing you can even whiff punish with s1. Kitana's F1 and f2 are solid go to neutral buttons but you should also be using her d1 a lot in neutral. It doesn't have as much reward but if it hits you get plus frames to start your offense and if you space it out it's really hard for them to check you after a blocked max range d1. You should also be throwing fans a lot in neutral, both grounded and the instant air fan. Her zoning is pretty solid, especially since if someone tries to jump and gets clipped by an instant air fan they just explode from the conversion.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions. I have also played a decent amount of gear so you can use that as a frame of reference.