Yet QPR refused to lie down and on-loan Tottenham playmaker Taarabt, 20, capped an outstanding display with assists for both Rangers goals.
First the Moroccan played in right-back Peter Ramage to rifle home a fine finish in the 57th minute and another clever pass allowed Tamas Priskin to level the scores nine minutes later.
Rangers boss Warnock said: "He's not an easy player to have in your side if I'm honest.
"He's got tremendous skill but it's how you play him.
"We've got good players and he complements us. Will he go back to Tottenham at the end of the season? Oh aye, they want £4.5million for him."
Rangers had chances to win the game that were spurned, with substitute Rowan Vine most culpable with a dreadful finish after Taarabt had played him in.
Warnock was not happy with the penalty decision which saw Kaspars Gorkss punished for hauling down Preston striker Jon Parkin.
The former Sheffield United boss said: "If you are giving penalties for that then you're going to be giving them all over the show.
"It was a sloppy one but all credit to the lads - we dominated the second half and got back into it and then we had the miss of the day through Viney. He still doesn't know how he's missed it."
The result stretched Preston's winless run to four matches and left Ferguson bitterly frustrated again.
His side had also squandered a two-goal lead in their last home outing against Sheffield Wednesday on March 16.
Ferguson said: "We shot ourselves in the foot again and to be quite honest at 2-2 I would have taken a draw because they were well on top.
"That wasn't good enough today - nowhere near.
"At 2-1 we lost all shape and discipline and it hasn't a couple of times now - against Sheffield Wednesday when we were 2-0 up and against Nottingham Forest when we went 3-0 up but got away with it."
Ferguson conceded defeat in his side's slim bid to reach the play-offs and admitted his side are still not safe from relegation.
"We can forget about the play-offs," he said. "But we're not safe yet and we've got to be aware of that."
Source: Team Talk
Source: Team Talk