Taught to buy Whole Life Insurance. Why do you only get the death benefit then? Where does the savings go?

I have been told my whole life to buy cash value life insurance (whole life, universal, etc) because that was like 'owning' your policy. When my grandfather died though, he had over $80,000 in his 'cash value' policy with Northwestern Mutual. When my grandmother went to collect, they only gave her the regular face amount of the policy and keep the cash value of $80,000. He paid a ton of money into this policy for his life insurance AND savings plan to p on to his family, but in fact we only got ONE of them when he died? Obviously I am questioning if this is still a good plan. Is cash value life insurance really worth what these agents are selling it as because right now they seem like scam artist.