As a general rule, shorter (and just a bit) lighter rifles are typically thought of as being more handy and portable. I've never been to Alaska, nor professionally guided anybody.....but a "guide" has a lot of responsibilities beyond putting the client on game. Handling down game, horses, ATV, maybe camp and meals, lots of stuff. A guide is typically armed to back a client on dangerous game, or to finish cripples, so guides need guns, but a guide gun is often thought to be powerful, and portable * * *
I agree.
Whether you call them "short rifles," "guide guns," "bush guns," or "brush carbines," the idea is a fast-handling compact weapon with a powerful chambering that will hold its own at short ranges in the rough-n-tumble boonies against big 4-legged predators with claws and teeth, such as the O.P. describes in his brown bear encounter.
Arguably that's a 'niche' use, but rifles are like golf clubs and you select the one from the bag that's going to be the most useful for the shot, given the lay of the land you find yourself in.
For example, the "shorter, lighter-weight, and more portable" design-theory led Remington to create the 18.5" Model 600, chambered for the .350 Rem. Magnum. The .350 RM roughly mimics the ballistics of the .35 Whelen but in a shorter action.
That package, or something close to it, is what I'd take up to AK today, and keep it near me while fishing off a river bank for salmon.
If you can learn to manage the recoil of a compact magnum and get to shooting it off-hand with reasonable accuracy out to 100-yds, you've got about the perfect set-up for portability and protection in Rough Country where bears, cougars, moose, and other such critters roam.