The blockchain is technically a distributed ledger. It does work as a database, but it is more than that. It is, of course, new technology and is just one decade old. I will also like to add that blockchain is still in the infant stage and has a lot of room to grow. It is a technology that is currently changing almost every industry out there, just like the internet has done.
It has a lot of doors to be knocked and grow, as you say. But I am wondering why so many people who claimed they know blockchain well do not consider it as a database. Oddly enough, it is just a data storing structure with a new method of encryption, confirmation, save, and retrieve. Is that so hard to realize?