I absolutely agree. Currently the synchronisation is in development and testing. The database (or better said, the distributors API) only provides a very narrow set of interrogations. And has some strange data field types also (e.g. row modified is delivered, but internaly stored as a string type in a unusal format). So the create/delete of pages every import is just for testing purposes. If all is set and stable (and i can rely on the DB modified field), your approach is definitely the way to go.
The questions (page ID limitation? Reset...) came up while testing. And i was curious about it ?
Thx for you answer (also to @rick)
Olaf