Yes and no... A VPN Gateway or VPN server doesn't have to be an exit node, and may route onwards to actual exit nodes. Some nodes may not "exit" at all - see setups where you are just trying to reach your private networks.

In a tailscale setup, an "exit node" has specific meaning and the term makes sense as far as I'm concerned:

https://tailscale.com/kb/1103/exit-nodes/