My opinion about what the fees cover is irrelevant. The fees cover whatever management says they cover. Opinion comes in when discussing whether it's a reasonable business practice.

Sometimes the list of things covered by the fee includes things guests might have expected to pay extra for in the past, like internet, parking, and breakfast. Other times it includes things that customers would always have assumed were covered in the nightly rate, like using the pool. Until these fees became popular several years ago how often did hotels ever charge overnight guests a separate fee to use their pool?

Sadly the fact is that most of these fees are garbage fees. They're arbitrary, nonnegotiable amounts tacked on to the nightly room rate so the hotel can advertise a low price in big print, making itself look like a bargain, while quietly collecting a non-bargain price from customers.

Can you ask for the fee to be removed from the bill? Good luck with that. The answer I've always gotten is some form of, "If you can show us a copy of your reservation that states the price without disclosing the service fee, we'll remove it from the bill." Ten years ago you may have gotten lucky with that, as at the time the fees where an emerging phenomenon and reservation system hadn't all caught up. But nowadays hotel systems will virtually always disclose and include the fee. Once you click "I agree" to book the reservation, you've agreed to the fee.