The word specifically used is देव, Devas exist according to Veda and other scriptures.
Does Allah exist? Or Yahweh? (in the form of their interaction with jesus/mohammed and humans)? Definitely not
They're imaginary.
Krishna too when showed his Virat roop, all gods were seen inside of him.
Use the term Deva instead of 'gods', and it will help you a lot. No gods were inside him, as there's only one god which is Ishvara, and not Allah or Yahweh. All Devas are inside Ishvara, though.
Prayers to Devas like Surya or Maarut or Indra goes to Ishvara, but those to imaginary creatures won't go anywhere, since you're praying to your imagination/delusions and not to an actual thing that exists.
There's a secondary meaning to this specific verse however, that I believe you, and most people are missing.
सर्व देव नमस्कारः केशवं प्रतिगच्छति
The key words are keshava and namsakaara. Ka क means the body or Aatma and Isha, you know already, hopefully. Va is the Aapa Bija denoting pervaded-ness.
Therefore, Keshava is the lord (isha) that pervades (va) the individual aatma/body (ka).
In namaskaara, the key part is nama नम na means "not" and ma means "me". Namaskaara is the kaara or action of 'not me-ing-ness'.
The primary use of nama is in mantra nyaasa where everything ends with namah for eg: सूर्याय अङ्गुष्ठाभ्यां नमः (to Surya in my thumb, not me) or मुखे भास्कराय नमः (to Bhaaskara within my face, not me) etc.
So, the secondary (or rather, the better) meaning is that all mantra nyaasas that include namah result in the residence of keshava or Ishvara, even if the residence is given to Surya or others.
If you know some things in depth, then, if we were to pick one of these meanings, this meaning is more suitable than the prayer/worship leading to Ishvara via all Devataas.
In which case, your question is flawed, and prayers to Ishvara don't get there by any other means than direct prayer to Ishvara, which is done only via the use of Pranava. Although, the Vishnu cult/sect people would also assert this can be done via Puja to the form(s) of Vishnu... Anyways, that's wrong because Vishnu (Ishvara and not the one of the 12 Aadityas) doesn't exist in the form of any murti. You can use the murti as a more graspable/gross means to address Pranava, but without Pranava, no prayer (to Ishvara) will ever receive fruition.
On a side note, this is also why all Avataaras (of Ishavara) take birth in the land that they do it in. Because, only via the means of Pranava is Ishvara invoked and prayed to. Via means of the karma of that prayer, after the invocation, is the eventual fruition of divine descent (avatarana) achieved. Since no one else uses Pranava, it cannot happen in any other area. The Buddhits fail as they use it to meditate primarily, rather than praying to Pranava directly. Ishvara simply has a higher chance to descend in populated authentic Hindu locations (Southern Nepal, UP, Bihar),the main regions were Punjab/Haryana/Utaarakhand etc in earlier times, as we can observe, due to the prevalence of the understanding, invocation and prayer to Pranava. These are the locations where Ishvara, fully (Krishna/Raama,etc) or partially (Veda Vyaasa etc) descend, as the prayer karma of these places is the maximum by those who pray to Pranava (Ishvara). Although, nowadays that is going to the ditch as well.
If all authentic and well read and learned Hindus moved to a small Island, and prayed (the exact same prayer) every day, with bhaava, for hours to Pravana, I can guarantee that Island would produce a partial (if not complete) Avataara of Ishvara within a few years, despite being on the opposite side of 'Aryavarta'. This applies to all other Devas as well, but in that case, you don't pray to Pranava, but rather to the Deva.
The Christian or Islamic prayer doesn't produce divine descent of Ishvara because they're not invoking the Vaachaka of Ishavara (Pranava), they say Amen/Ameen instead of Pranava, which is probably a bastardization of the shabda. They're praying to an imaginary creature using a bastardized address (Amen/Ameen) and they're getting imaginary results. Their societies have worked and do work, even now on Purushartha alone and not a bit of Daiva. They're failing in the Ishvara area on one hand, and, because they reject 'paganism' or rather, the existence of Devas, they're failing on easy to access help as well.
Anyways, that's swaying from the question, hope that answers everything.
