Route 53 alias feature is RFC compliant - we will return an A record for an apex alias. Aliases can be used at non-apex too to avoid following CNAME chains. So

Route 53 alias feature is RFC compliant - we will return an A record for an apex alias. Aliases can be used at non-apex too to avoid following CNAME chains. So, for e.g., the configuration in docs can be improved upon by having www.example be an alias to example.com instead of a CNAME.