yeah, if your tire were rubbing on the strut, you would def be able to tell.
a good trick to see if this really is the case, is to buy like white window paint or some kind of "flaky" white paint, and coat the inside of the tire. drive around for about 5 min, jack the car up and pull the wheel and check inside for white paint. you will see right then if it is rubbing since the white paint will have rubbed off onto whatever its rubbing against.
but i would not listen to the dealership. sounds def like a bad wheel bearing. jack the car up...and grab the whole wheel and try and move it around. if you get play, then its def the wheel bearing. HTH.
