Unfortunately, yes. The await still means a blocking thread, except that other threads can resume doing other work. That is, if there actually is other work. For example, storing data in the database and sending data over the wire, are both RPC calls. Because usually a database is also an RPC call. Instead of waiting for a single call and then waiting for the second call, you wait for both calls at the same time. But both are blocking calls.
The .NET async/await is asynchronous execution versus messaging, which is asynchronous communication. Only with asynchronous communication there is no blocking thread.