But I wondered, since the ecliptic is the circular path that the Sun appears to follow over the course of a year, then wouldn't the ecliptic path receive more sunlight than the equator?

When the Sun is at its Northernmost declination (the top point of the red curve above), which is ~23° all the points on Earth at latitude ~23° North (the tropic of Cancer) will receive the maximum possible solar irradiation at the solar noon of that day. Once the Sun moves down to declination 22°, it will be the turn of the points at 22° North and so on.

The reason why the Equator is the line that receive the most solar radiation is because it is the one that is on average closer to the Sun's ground track (in other words, is the place with the maximum mean solar elevation).

An equivalent visualisation would be to take the mean of the ecliptic, and by looking at the above red line it is quite straightforward to see that it would be a flat line on the celestial equator, that translates to the Earth's equator.

Does that makes sense to you?