It can't be a real influence if Bakker wasn't aware of whatever that thing is, but that doesn't mean one can't make the argument that there are similarities and parallels even though Bakker didn't put them there intentionally.
I would argue that we are all influenced by lots of things we're not consciously aware of.
An example. A friend of mine, who likes to play elves (or the equivalent) in fantasy RPGs, always gives his characters names that sound sort of vaguely Akkadian. Now, he doesn't do this deliberately. He just thinks those sorts of names sound right for elves somehow. The reason he thinks this is because, years and years ago (in 2002), I started giving all my elf NPCs Akkadian names whenever I GMed an RPG that had elf NPCs in it. And the reason I did that in 2002 is because I heard
Therion's The Siren of the Woods for the first time and really liked it (it literally completely changed my taste in music). And that song is sung in Akkadian. My friend hasn't ever listened to that song as far as I know. And yet, when he fires up
TES: Skyrim and picks a name for his Altmer character, he is being influenced, indirectly, by that Therion song that he's (probably) never heard.
But yeah, I agree that there are similarities and parallels that the author didn't consciously intend. And that we should consider those separately from deliberate homages.