Yeah, that makes sense. For smaller projects, I don't think anything matches Ruby in terms of pure solo-dev productivity. I still use it for scripting.
One thing I would advise, given your situation, is to avoid full-blown SPAs. You can use something like Stimulus Reflux and be way more productive than going down the whole React/Redux/library explosion rabbit hole. Ditto for spending a lot of time on Kubernetes, Docker, etc.
If you're not a full-time dev, just do things with the minimum abstraction needed.
