You’re correct that it isn’t as good of an alternative as flossing but you’re meant to do both.
You should floss, preferably with actual floss and not a pick, and then follow that up with water irrigation. You dislodge food and break up the plaque with the floss and flush it out with the water flosser.
I’ve been told just today that tone isn’t hard to infer from text and people who use tone markers are dumb. /s