TL;DR meta data isn't encrypted and read by “government agencies”. Probably Israel, but they're not saying with certainty which agencies do.
If government agencies can read these, other groups likely can, too.
“WhatsApp has no backdoors and we have no evidence of vulnerabilities in how WhatsApp works,” said Meta spokesperson Christina LoNigro.
Your vulnerability's right there, LoNigro.
Saying “oh but it affects the other apps, too” doesn't make yours less vulnerable.