Generally, good martial arts is about moving your own body well. In other words, it's more like dancing than strongman competitions. The only problem is that you'll have to time your movements to an opponent (or even opponents if you get really unlucky), adapt to his movements and other conditions of the fight, etc.

Looking at some of the sticks mentioned in this thread, I think I can safely tell you that, with 15 years of martial arts training (including weapons of various sorts, and 5 years just on sticks), I wouldn't use some of them. Their shape is definitely wrong for what I need to do. The weight distribution may be weird. The geometry may be wrong. Will I use them in a pinch? Sure, but they wouldn't be my day-to-day carry. So this exercise of picking a stick before learning to use it seems to me an example of putting the cart before the horse.

But, hey, it's just money. After you get one of these sticks, you take some lessons and discover the stick you have isn't good for how you'd like to fight, then you can get a new stick, one that fits your techniques.

If I want to carry a walking stick, I'd probably custom order something to my specs from a woodworker. Would that be expensive? Yes. But if you're putting trust in this stick, how much is your life worth?