Don't underestimate the Maritime degree or over-emphasise the aviation degree.
Pilots don't need a degree, so no specific degree is very helpful as a pilot, though if it gets you work within the industry it may help you get a job. You yourself mentioned that the back-up careers the aviation degree allows you are poor management jobs, and that the maritime back up has good pay and time off (for hours building!). For your CPL and eventually ATPL exams the aviation degree may help, but so will the maritime degree - I come from a Naval background, and my Royal Navy academic training helped a lot with my JAA ATPL exams - enough that I now teach the course!
As for the flying training if you carefully select your school you can have excellent training. Having flown from Ormond Beach Fla, so in the air with Embry-Riddle students, I am not especially impressed with their training anyway. Their procedures were not always correct or even safe, and considering they were being trained for international aviation the fact that they all seemed to use RT which is illegal outside the USA and extremely dangerous (made illegal after it caused 800 deaths in the most deadly air accident ever) did not strike me as very professional. As often is the case try to find the right organisation for you, and then go and train with them, and you may well find one outside the university system that is excellent.