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If the abstain vote were defined that way, people would just say "by the way, I'm here but not voting, because I don't want to affect the outcome and/or am neutral on the issue." Since that was the original purpose of the abstain vote, we would just end up going around in a circle.

In fact, now that I looked up "Abstention" on Wikipedia, the definition reads:

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it wrongly or by not marking anything at all. A "blank (or white) voter" has voted, although his vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depending on each legislation, while an abstaining voter hasn't voted.

So if an Abstain vote were counted that way, it shouldn't be called an Abstain, but rather a Blank.

Exactly, Abstentions dont count for or against the final vote tally.