This sounds like a GM thing to decide.
My thoughts:
The GM shouldn't be being vague and mysterious about the game mechanics. That just causes frustration by the players when they don't know how to do anything. Trying to trick the players into doing something sub-optimal in order to increase the challenge difficulty and make it so that the PCs don't roflstomp their way through the challenge is a PF1 thing to do that should be left behind in PF1. PF2 is more than capable of being challenging even when the players know exactly how to best approach a problem.
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This isn't really an esoteric lore question, but a general Recall Knowledge question. The answer wouldn't change if you were using Religion, Occultism, Bardic Lore or Spirit Lore.
I'm pretty sure the rules say you likely need a check to identify what skills you use to disable a hazard, but I don't think they specify whether you need to roll to tell if something is a hazard in the first place. Personally, I like to call for a check but use a simple trained DC (15) instead of whatever the hazard's level based DC would be. Let's say you have a 5th level hazard, which would be a DC 20 to successfully ID. Your player rolls a 17.
"You realize this is a haunt -- a localized spiritual echo, rather than a true undead. But you do not know how to disable it."
I really like using gradient DCs like this to distinguish between general knowledge and specific knowledge, which is important when unique creatures get a +10 DC adjustment. You shouldn't apply that adjustment to recognizing an adamantine dragon just because this one in particular has a name.
I also think the word localized is important in what you mention, because if players can't figure out how to disable the haunt they should know running away is an option.
There are some specific feats that might change this, like Having Ingenuity. Though by RAW it just gives you a secret check to spot haunts before initiative is rolled and laxer proficiency requirements to disable them, letting a character with the feat get some kind of advantage on the check to identify HOW to disable the haunt seems with the (ahem) spirit of the feat.
Glad it helps! In general, it is always worth considering how hard a DC should be instead of just using the chart. Archive of Nethys and FoundryVTT always list leveled based DCs for RK (adjusted for rarity) as a convenience to GMs, but those are not part of the official stat blocks on a monster. They are fan additions. Some relevant guidelines:
GM Core pg. 54
On most topics, you can use simple DCs for checks to Recall Knowledge. For a check about a specific creature, trap, or other subject with a level, use a level-based DC (adjusting for rarity as needed). You might adjust the difficulty down, maybe even drastically, if the subject is especially notorious or famed. Knowing simple tales about an infamous dragon’s exploits, for example, might be incredibly easy for the dragon’s level, or even just a simple trained DC.