At my son's request, we listened to LotR on CD as we ran errands. Not sure that he knew what he was asking for, I chose the Bridge of Khazad-dûm chapter as then he would have some reference point (we'd played out the scene many times). Anyway, as I listened, I heard again that when the FotR minus Gandalf leave Moria that they go down some steps onto a road perhaps. PJ's East Gate of Moria is just not right. I think that maybe he was trying to use a natural real world location, but one would think that this being a dwarven capital that the area outside of the gate would have had some landscaping and stonework, even in these years of decay.
What came to mind was the Lost City, home of the
sleestaks.