Steve's own parents abandoned him (gave him up for adoption) when he was young and so Steve was raised by foster parents. His foster parents seemed to have been really nice people, but perhaps Steve might have had difficulty connecting with his first biological daughter because he couldn't connect with his own biological father. Just speculating of course ...
Even if he couldn't have connected with her emotionally he could so easily have looked after her financially as she grew up. To have left his daughter in poverty when he was so wealthy is just the pits. I can't admire a man like that.
He just seems like someone who was incapable of enjoying anything he couldn’t perfect, including people. I wonder how he viewed his daughter, someone directly from his own matter but so alien to himself.
If that is true he was very shortsighted because he was far from perfect himself. I wonder is that he hated his daughter's mother and couldn't stand the thought of a daughter who was half her's. The daughter didn't count. Anyway he could hurt her was a way of hurting her mother, all the way to his deathbed.