I'm not saying there is zero effect....but the warm or cold pools off the south coast of AK are usually a sign that we have had consistent ridging or troughing. So maybe there is a small effect....but the atmosphere will do what it wants to do. If the overall wave train is oriented to favor a trough or ridge there at 500mb...it will do it. You are correct in that tropical waters and the circulations that develop when deep convection forms, are a much stronger influence on the atmosphere.
I still would rather see anomalous warm waters off of AK....but I'm not going to be down and out if the waters there were cooler than normal.