Yes, absolutely, you can use 2020 points to book any Holiday Inn Club Vacation resort up to 10 month out. You only pay the booking fee and point shield if you want to protect the points. RCI works differently, you have to find an exchange first before the points are deposited into RCI, but they should take 2020 points first to make any RCI reservation into any year.
I am searching RCI daily for good opportunities, if you want, send me a PM with where you would like to travel in 2020, and if I see something, I will send you a message to book it. Or like I said before, you can setup an ongoing RCI search for a location, resort, or list of resorts that you would like to travel in 2021 and the system will book it for you. HICV has an RCI dedicated phone line for us and they are very knowledgeable on our system. Their number is 888-724-0659 (RCI Service Line for HICV)
It was weird the way they "announced" these benefits... One day I saw 50k added to my account, and I am in the
HICV FB group and everyone started to say the same thing. Then they send out emails to some members (not me) about that and the RCI rebate. I got my email about a month later, after leaning from the group too. I really do not think they have made some formal announcement, besides their Covid Page, but that was more related to resorts closing, opening, and reduced capacity.
I will also recommend you review the 2021 Member Guide that just came out. HICV added 3 new resorts and there is more explanation on the way the club works.