For better or worse, I’ve seen this (charging ahead of checkin, not the aggressive phone calls) more as of late. I recently had a full service Tribute property charge me, not pre-authorize, the morning of my stay before I checked in. I know it was an actual charge, because my incidentals ended up posting separately to my card.
I had a LC property which charged, not just authorized, full amount before check in. It was a flexible rate with 1 day prior cancellation. I wanted to switch to a different credit card for that stay. The property was cooperative but they had to process a credit refund to old card, then a new charge to the new card.