- Audacity "Saves" audio projects to its native .aup, but can "Export" them to .mp3 or .wav
- Photoshop "Saves" .psd files, but "Exports" them to .jpeg
- Gimp "Saves" an .xcf, but "Exports" to .png
- Apple Notes "Saves" notes to its own sqlite database, but "Exports" to txt or pdf via a menu item
This technically satisfies your comment above, which is why we speak of moved goalposts.
It would be great if apple notes could convert your note library to ENEX or a .zip file of HTML items.