There are Japanese words that are written in Kana frequently despite having an associated Kanji (i.e. 轢かれる > ひかれる) like how 鰻 is often written as うなぎ when used as signage, is it because the Kanji is too difficult? They also do this in words where partial Kana is used rather than the actual Kanji altogether (i.e. 信憑性 > 信ぴょう性). I’ve also seen this in words such as: 刎頸 (ふんけい), 膀胱癌 (ぼうこうがん), 躊躇 (ちゅうちょ), 兎 (うさぎ), 髑髏 (どくろ), 鰐, (わに), 蝿 (はえ), 癇癪 (かんしゃく), 胆のう (嚢 exists, just use it) and so on…
Short answer is yes, because they are too hard. Typically the set of kanji you would see in regular use are called 常用漢字 (jouyou-kanji). Everything outside that tabls is called 表外 (hyogai) and are used more rarely. Where they are such as in newspapers or technical documents along with names, Chinese terms, and other less frequently used words, pronunciation guide letters (furigana) are used on top of the kanji.
One thing that sometimes trips people up with 常用漢字 is that it’s not just a list of kanji, it also includes readings. For example, 人参 are both 常用 but the second character is only listed with readings サン (as in 参加) and まい-る (参る). The ジン in にんじん is not on the list.
Can literate native Japanese speakers generally recognize and pronounce all (or most) jouyou-kanji on
sitesight without context?Generally yes to about a 90% degree, if they have completed secondary school education.
There are variety shows on TV where Japanese celebrities do a quiz to read uncommon kanji words but within the jouyou set (NepLeague I’m just using as one example). And usually it is passed, but then the harder levels are then to write the more complicated kanji from memory from reading a sentence in simple kana.