Vector databases were always more about retrieval than either vectors or data storage. But the term stuck all too well and companies held on to it a tad too long. Sorry :)

That's just a search engine, but then you're competing with traditional players like Elasticsearch and Vespa who all have built-in vector support by now, and you have to compete on attributes like price, performance, features, and who can mention 'AI' the most times on their web page.