Well, I haven't seen a lot of ruby code that uses } instead of end, have you? So using }, although legal, might not be within standard ruby practice.
The fact that it _allows_ 'end' would be enough to turn me off :]
I guess 'end' wasn't the only reason - while I don't actively dislike Ruby, I just prefer scheme or the lisp family. Part of that is the logical consistency of the lisp languages, part of it is purely personal taste.
Then don't type end, type } instead. Yes, it works.
If you're going to try something and give up before learning syntax, that's great, but trying to speak authoritatively is misleading.