Starting out with R and later moving more into Python I absolutely hate the seemingly unnecessary complexity of matplotlib. Honerable mention is also bokeh - http://bokeh.pydata.org/en/latest/ which does a nice job.
In R we have a neat Library that really shows the simplicity of called dplyr. If you just look at this little vignette I think you will see the simplicity we are moving in as a language.
I started in Python and then Pandas and moved to R and haven't looked back.
R vs Python is really just a personal experience. They are both great choices. I just like the R world more and the way everything can be integrated with each other. For example the Hadley Wickham Universe of Libraries.