Thanks for all the helpful replies!

Thinking of speeding up the response, I reached out to the Hyatt Concierge twitter (@HyattConcierge). I received a reply of "The fee will be waived if you use a free night award, but not waived if you use points. It will depend on the hotel. Let us know if we can be of further assistance" which seems to parrot the hotels stance despite me specifically detailing the substance of the messages on this thread.

I then reached out to Hyatt via email ([email protected]). I have not yet received a response. I'm guessing a response will not be forthcoming anytime soon.

I stayed 100+ nights last year, this year only 30 nights so far, and given I have not reached 60 nights yet for this year, I do not have a My Hyatt Concierge assigned which would have been my usual first point of contact for something like this. Is there any other way to get in touch with corporate?