I skipped the lengthy critical preface (to the Penguin edition) because the book is so long, but will have to read it once I finish.
There's plenty of other nasty Dombey behavior. I'm about 200 pages in and have been struck by a) the way he bailed out Walter Gay's uncle just to show the young son "the power money has over people" and subsequently b) assigned Walter to fill a position in Barbados, where he is likely to die young because of the virulent diseases there. [Walter being a young man who has a thing for the neglected daughter.]
From what I can tell, the critical preface, among other things, relates various characters to Dickens's early life.