Deleting in the resx file or lists table won't remove the item from showing up. You need to use Javascript to remove the few entries in the dropdown. Alternatively, it might be easier to simply rename those few states with a label next to the state name e.g. "Alaska (Cannot ship)" and then add the Availability rule in your Checkout to actually restrict those states from checking out.
As a separate note, the next Storefront release is normalized with the new country and regions lists in DNN to help make text localization easier. In addition, you will be able to easily unselect countries that you don't need and set your default country. However, subdivisions (regions) will still behave pretty much the same way as today since we didn't get the chance to program that deep. You cannot remove regions without using custom display template.