Actually, it's impossible to compare Peyrepertuse & Queribus to Carcassonne, while Les Baux can be just as Disneyesque, depending on circumstances.
Carcassonne is a restored defensive town with inner and outer walls, an intact castle, and is still inhabited. The most recent scholarship says the restoration is quite accurate. Before the restoration, after the Cite's initial purpose--defense against Spain was no longer necessary--stone from its walls were re-used to build the lower town, but it has been an occupied site for a couple of thousand years. It's a totally different type of site from the castle ruins if you are interested in medieval history.
If you enter Carcassonne via the Narbonne Gate, you will indeed be hit with a string of the most awful tourist shops--buildings and shops that were bought by Parisian speculators in the 19th C. when it became known that Carcassonne would be restored. These Parisians knew that this would become a place many people would want to visit. Instead, climb the hill and go in through the Courtine Entrance on the other side. You'll work to get up there but will have a completely different experience. We spent two weeks in a gite below the Courtines while we explored the region and walked up the hill into the cite several times.
As for Les Baux: we attempted to go there one spring break back in the 1980s when we lived in Paris, but turned around and left when we were engulfed in a sea of people, all on break with their kids as we were, and all we saw were signs for crepes, pizza, and hot dogs on the main street along with tacky shops. On the other hand, so many people have reported relaxed visits there that we may attempt it again, but in May or June, not a school vacation. So you see impressions can be different depending on the circumstances.
A word about restoration: many of the sites tourists visit were in ruins but restored in the 19th C., including Notre Dame de Paris and Vezelay.
