Opening disclaimer that the era covers some three thousand years, so Your Dynasty May Vary.
However, it seems like when you look at modern popular understandings of Pharaonic Divinity, it leans very into "An arrogant despot and literal slavedriver who claims to be a god on earth" territory, and I suspect this is heavily influenced by Exodus and its cinematic interpretations.
But while Egypt had slaves, we know that, for example, the pyramids were built by paid labor. Are we also misunderstanding how Egyptians and pharaohs themselves would have viewed their claims to divinity? Is it possibly more accurate to see it in terms of "Chief High Priest" or as manifesting some bigger divine will or order? When Akhenaten tried a form of monotheism, the singular deity he postulated certainly wasn't him.
I think this great quote from Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010) regarding pharonic titles gets to the core of your question:
"Throughtout history, megalomaniacs and tyrants have used such epitaphs - 'father of the nation,' 'dear leader' - but the terms usually have a hollow ring. Modern experience suggests that the titles are more about brainwashing and subjugation than the expression of popular acclaim. And yet, when it comes to ancient Egypt, scholars balk at such an interpretation....When the head of state is also 'the perfect god' opposition not only becomes unwise, but unthinkable. When the king also controls the written record, itbis hardly surprising that accounts of repression and brutality are absent."
Archeological evidence suggests the worship of "domestic deities" associated with the home and family was a commom feature of daily life in Ancient Egypt regardless of one's position in the social/economic hierarchy. I would suggest that means your everyday Ancient Egyptian most certainly believed in the deities with whom the pharaoh claimed association - so it was a deeply religious culture. How extensively that "association" was accepted as doctrine would depend on the ability of an individual pharaoh to control virtually all facets of Ancient Egyptian society. Furthermore, the widespread, daily worship of domestic deities could mean that this element of religion was, in fact, the most significant expression of faith to everyday Ancient Egyptians. Undoubtedly, the role of pharaoh as deity was crucial and most certainly was celebrated with the most lavish of spectacles, but these events may have been seen (even among the rank and file) as equally important for social harmony/order as they were for religious purposes.
Side track ahoy! Good ol' Akhenaten was an oddball for sure. That said, I like to think of his belief system as analogous to the standard MO of modern day cult leaders: position one's self as a traditionalist/fundamentalist, stress the need to purify the faith, build on the familiar framework set down by previous leaders, and coin a catchy name for your "wisdom," Akhenaten labelled his "The Teaching." Like some cult leaders, Akhenaten just kept piling on more and more "teachings" concentrating his power and thus drifitng further out into radical wierdness. He got away with it because he was pharaoh, in our world similar figures often wind up creating death cults (Manson, Koresh, Jones) or going to jail for financial crimes.
In short, ancient Egypt was extremely (and undoubtly sometimes violently) autocratic. All pharaohs, even the "good" ones, were dictators. The public practice of worshipping the pharaoh was so tightly controlled as to render the importance of belief essentially irrelevant.