People say "capacitors store electric charge" because that's how the integral form of the capacitor equation works. [1] When tutoring EEs in university I spent a lot of time getting them to unlearn water analogies. They break down in some very fundamental ways. [2] I agree the analogies are useful when introducing the concept of capacitance and inductance but to me the analogies are the dead-end path.

[1] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/capeng2....

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy#Limits_to_th...