I actually have an update on my original question. I had booked a Choice Hotel for an overnight stop in Colorado. I was aware that they had a resort fee but was not sure if Choice charged these on award bookings (e.g. Hilton, Hyatt etc. waive resort fees on award bookings)

The app clearly listed the separate resort fee in "taxes and fees" on the final booking confirmation page for paid stays. When I switched to points, on the final confirmation page the app listed the points price and for taxes and fees it said "included". I felt comfortable based on this that the resort fee was not going to be charged on the award booking so I went ahead and booked it.

TL;DR, the hotel still tried to charge me the resort fee and would not back down even when I showed them the app confirmation page. I pushed back saying that they can't charge me a different price than the clearly listed final price on the confirmation page but still nothing. I said I would probably dispute the charge with Amex(would be an easy dispute to win). They removed the fee.