I am not a Geophysicist - nor do I portray one on tv!
But these statements might bother you less if you stopped thinking of water as a cool, clear liquid that can, e.g., quench your thirst or extinguish a fire. Because:
At these fantastic temperatures and enormous pressures, H2O acquires all kinds of weird and exotic physico-chemical properties. Under the conditions prevailing in the Earth's Mantle, H2O does not resemble at all the mundane liquid you know from daily experience.
So if such articles mention water "assisting in the formation of magma," etc. - just substitute in your mind "water" with "strange chemical substance X," instead.
Regards,
My common sense is stronger than that!! Water is a liquid band no matter what the environment, hydraulic pressure is hydraulic pressure. And that pressure would be forced up, not down. The years of steam theory as a Machinist Mate in the Navy never once did I even get the hint that super heated steam melts rock. Never in my 60 years have I ever heard water in any state being flammable.
If I sound naive to you because, “there's no telling what forces and chemical reactions are in play down there”, then how the heck can they stayed as fact that water helps create molten rock??