The first day I made a formula for the distance as a function of the length of the two sticks and, maximizing it, made a 278.

With the week 1 stream I realized this might not be good enough. I re-did my formula now accounting for three different disassembly methods depending on what cycle the stick arrives mod 3, and several other errors and special cases. I made a table of the best possible score for each pair of stick lengths, and found the maximum is 283 with a (4, 8). (I might make a showcase of a 283 later.)

(6, 10) are the only stick lengths that achieve a 282. Note the vitae-mors order is important.

In light of the possibility of error in my calculation or that someone else might squeeze a few more guilder out of the left stick assembly, I have chosen a title with humility. Just kidding, I went maximum hubris.