People don't refer to gold, or buying a house a "saving" either, but they definitely see it as safe haven values, and not as their money being "actively" invested (even as they do bear risks and are fiscally categorized as investments).
For people I talked to, beating inflation was their base goal.
I assume when people say savings they mean investments. Because it would be stupid not to invest a large cash position.
You would be surprised at the number of generally math-savvy (at least “enough”) people who have an irrational fear of “what if it goes down?” and fritter away decades of substantial growth (with each foregone decade skipping roughlh modeled as a missed doubling).
Savings accounts and similar are the appropriate place to put cash you’re saving for a specific purpose or for emergency funds. You don’t want to invest something you will or could need access to in the short term.