Crowds on a wide road are not proof of life. The gate into the kingdom is the Son Himself.
Prophets already knew a remnant path. Many claim Abraham; few walk the obedience the kingdom requires.
Matthew 7 places the gate at the end of the sermon, just before two houses and a storm. The warning is aimed at hearers who will soon watch an official road collapse.
The wide road was pedigree, temple, and majority religion in that generation. AD 70 closed that road as a public system.
The gate has a name. You do not hunt a later entrance.