Humility is the desired state, and Alma points out that there are more ways than one to achieve it. One may be compelled to humility when their great desire is thwarted by some outside source. What is more difficult is to recognize that it is oneself that is blocking the desire. For these poor whose culture had blocked them from that they understood to be access to God, that culture brought them to the state that they were willing to learn a different way to God. For the rich men in the New Testament examples, there was nothing in the culture that prevented them from access to God. The scriptures that deny the kingdom of God to the rich are not based on external hindrances, but rather the persons very relationship to his own riches that blocks him from God. As with Marks young man, the wealth blocked his access to God. The wealth had a greater hold on his heart than his desire to follow the Savior.
For all of us, there are parts of our complex lives that may block us from humility, from our desire to learn and accept a massive alteration in our worldview. There are families who would have gladly accepted the message of the missionaries, except that it would have disrupted their network of family and friends. There are people who might have accepted the gospel, but could not because of the nature of their employment (such as ministers of other churches). There are those who would accept the gospel, but cannot see their lives without social liquor, or without their liberal understanding of sexuality. All of these things can be the very thing that hinders our ability to alter our world sufficient to accept the gospel.
The difference that Alma is pointing out is that the person who humbles themselves is more blessed, not because the result is any different, but because the effort to achieve that result is so much more difficult. The rich man who can “hardly … enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23) might lose those riches, and in the aftermath of his loss turn to God for an explanation. The removal of his riches might remove the thing that hinders him from the massive change, but it is possible that even with riches he might be able to school his soul and become humble enough to change. There have been, and are, wealthy people who are tremendously faithful in the gospel. They have been able to humble themselves to place their riches in the proper perspective with God. These are then more blessed, according to Alma, because they have overcome on their own.