from a scientific knowledge. your chosen category. is about precise terminology.
which would be ledgers.
a database is too simple of a word to express scientifically what occurs in bitcoin. especially when it does not encapsulate the actual facility and function of the data

for instance the UTXO set. is a database. but the blockchain is a ledger.
the storage and editing/appending methods are completely different to each other

you cant edit the blockchain. hense not a database.
the lock and append and relational flow to new block is the special element that makes it a ledger and not a database