Say you find rot in your roof, so you immediately set aside $X to pay for a roof replacement, since you now know that soon this cost will be incurred. Doing says nothing about your stance on preventative maintenance. This is similar, it's just accounting. They reserved money for the fine when the complaint was lodged since they knew they likely were going to incur some cost.
If WhatsApp gains knowledge of an impending fine (exact amount might yet be unknown) that is to be paid at some point in the future, they have to earmark money to cover that liability.
You can argue whether the violation was intentional or not, but setting aside money to pay a fine after you have been found guilty is not a signal that they intentionally broke the law.
You think there's some >$225M benefit not adding a few extra lines to the terms of service or adding another annoying prompt?
As an aside, I think accounting for anticipated fines is required by the regulations. So at least they were following those regulations! Talk about irony, lol.