I worked in a travel agent for years and have been to Disneyland Paris many times.
Personally, we have never bothered with a fancy hotel, we were literally only in the room to sleep at night and maybe a quick change. I've never stayed in the same hotel twice, I've stayed in a mix of Disney hotels and the non Disney hotels just outside. All the ones I've stayed in have been fine (I can't remember the names as it's been a while since I was there but I know I stayed at the Santa Fe) which is a 2* and it was fine. We had a bunk bed and a double bed.
I personally hate hotel breakfasts so I always just have cereal when away.
We never did the character dinners as I don't think they are great value for money personally. You meet most of the characters through the park anyway. We usually ate in Disney village at night.
As for pricing, when I worked in the travel agents we could beat the price of Disney direct if you already had a quote from them. That was a few years ago so I'm not sure that's still the case, but we could also do a dynamic package which usually worked out even cheaper. You just had to pay the fees to use the Disney bus when you were at the airport (or make your own way there) - I can't remember the price but I believe it was maybe 20 pp?