In the old days without EU regulations, airlines were only following a "commercial" policy for cancellation as their obligations were not legally defined. Nowadays the European airlines tend to find that they have to pay too much for compensation according to the directive, so I doubt that they would even pay more for rev pax than award pax. When a hotel is needed (right of care) airlines tend to put F class pax in better hotel (sometimes also for J pax), etc... This is a matter of "commercial" policy, not an obligation. A question is whether they also do it for F awards. There are other "soft" compensation items and emergency services that might differ according to COS, award/revenue, FFP status. AF has a tradition to be "good" for IRROPS, but there are so many delays/cancellations nowadays... But I would be disapointed if they discrimate against wards.
As I said before, CX, which is not under any EU obligation except for its flights from Europe, tends to treat its pax well in case of delay/cancellation and does it irrespective of award/rev. Same experience with SQ.