While I definitely oppose ads in WhatsApp, I do know several people who use WhatsApp as a tool to get news, know what's going on in their town and/or community (sports club, etc), among other things. It's their way of being in the know, their reddit, RSS feed, news client, etc.
I am sure that no one asked for ads and that people will get very little value out of having ads shown to them. Also, no one went around "asking for ads". Nonetheless, I am also pretty positive many people do want to “hear more about topics and organizations across WhatsApp". In fact, until a year ago I wasn't really aware of just how much people live in these WhatsApp islands/bubbles, but clearly they do!