Hi All,
I cannot resist this thread. I am a Californian and I have a master of science in Atmospheric Science.
The driver for lake effect is the moisture difference between cold dry air flowing over a warm moist surface layer of air above a lake. When Pacific storms roll in, they are already saturated air masses. A saturated air mass is not going to pick up much more moisture while passing over an alpine lake at 6200 feet.
On some occasions, when cold, dry air masses coming from the north flow over Lake Tahoe, the lake effect can be an effective snow producer at places like Heavenly Valley in South Lake Tahoe and the back country on the southeast shore of the lake. Lake Tahoe is longer in the north-south direction than east-west. That presents a larger fetch for the northerly winds that come with such storms. Also, those storms do not come directly from the ocean. Hence, the air is dryer and is capable of picking up more moisture from the lake than the saturated air from the Pacific.
The majority of moisture in sierra storms comes directly from the ocean. It's an infinitely larger fetch than that of Lake Tahoe. The Great Salt Lake, on the other hand is a moisture source for an air mass that has already dried out by crossing the coastal mountains and desert of Nevada. So, the difference in the moisture in the dryer air and the lake surface air is much larger. Lake effect is strong in the Wasatch.