I'm a back end C++/rust type and I script with Python.
If I wanted to build a front end, is there any reason I'd use Ruby/Rails over Django? I'm not familiar with Rails but I'm curious if it's worthwhile to pick up.
I wouldn't recommend Rails as front-end only. It's fine as a full-stack framework, and rather nice for quickly building out a back-end API, but not really compelling if you're only using the front-end side of things IMO.
That said, I would argue that Ruby is a very similar but nicer scripting language than Python (particularly for general utility / glue scripts), so if you enjoy scripting in Python you would probably find Ruby easy to pick up and potentially a nice compliment to what you already know.
The neat thing about Rails is that going from zero to a running database-backed app is done in a ridiculously few number of keystrokes that invoke quite a bit of under-the-hood magic in terms of routing, form and view scaffolding, etc. Django is kind of similar, in that you don't need to write a ton of code to get a basic app in the browser, but it exposes a bit more of itself as you get going right away, and you need to work a bit connecting things together. As far as mature, large Django and Rails apps – the similarities outweigh the differences, in my opinion. I would recommend doing the basic Rails tutorial, it really doesn't take that much time.