Is it acceptable to use " preposition To" in this form?

Hi there,
As I know, if "To" functions as a preposition, the thing that follows it must be a noun. For example, " Approach to sth", " Several guides to sth", etc.
It means that we can have a noun-form of a verb ( gerund or unreal noun) in such situations.
In this regard, for some verbs we can find to types of noun: 1) a real noun, 2) ing+ verb known as gerunds. For example, " Developing and Development", " Destroying and Destruction", etc. As I found out, the strong preference is always to use a real noun rather than the gerund. For instance, we cannot say, " A vicious approach to destroying every thing", and thus it has to be said like this, , " A vicious approach to the destruction of every thing". The confusion arising here is when we are using other prepositions,e.g. "of ", " from ", etc. I frequently see that natives use the gerund form of a verb rather than the real noun ( e.g. Destroying rather than Destruction) because the " verb+ ing " states that the emphasis is on action, but " real-noun form" states that the emphasis is on the result achieved through the action. Why this happens? If this rule is OK, then why this is not applicable to " preposition To" ?

Thank you