(mostly thinking out loud to convince myself to not try optimize further, doesnt need to be read out on stream unless it seems relevant)
my approach:
- one part of the system cuts the snowflake in half
- another processes a half into the required outputs
- another mirrors the other half and positions it so that it can be processed as well

this feels like as good as it gets with this approach, because:
- any improvement would require cutting down to two arms
- a single arm cant process all the inputs as it'd need to grab all four of them at once to be able to move them all to the end.
- thus the arm that grabs the input would need to also deliver (at least) one of the outputs. this feels impossible as each output is required twice and any more complex operation of this arm is limited by it being forced to grab the input.