749CONNIE
You are absolutely correct, any radar can paint terrain.
The description of the radar on civilian aircraft is "Weather Radar".
The little MAP button changes the sensitivity and the color of the display.
You don't have to be in MAP mode to show terrain, "WX" does the same thing. MAP is pretty good at displaying larger bodies of water, shorelines, large rivers, etc.
Over fairly level terrain you can also detect larger towns and cities. I have literally spent hundreds of hours in the cockpit of aircraft, drinking coffee, and watching the PF (pilot flying) deviating around such large thunderstorms named St. Louis, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and on and on.
In today's sophisticated avionics environment, EGPWS, Synthetic Vision, and Enhanced Vision the need for attempting to use weather radar as a ground avoidance tool would seem to be minimal.
If AA965 had been equipped with EGPWS I am certain no one would now be talking about that unfortunate incident, almost twenty years ago.