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Or does it actually affirm some of the culture's ideas about class, marriage and behavior?

I would state that what could be used as criticism is actually satire. I suspect that if Jane had criticized, she would have done it more openly. She understood the inevitability of the social differences, and she did not write to abolish them, nor to trash them down like, for example, Oscar Wilde or Charles Dickens would have. Instead, she presented what she knew, and satirized most of it through specific characters.

All of Jane Austen's characters (the couples) will inevitably go through a series of problems to achieve their romance, and seemingly the obstacles WILL include social and financial differences that might threaten the courtship-yet-is a completely separate thing from the romance itself.  In other words, the roman remains pure and true- Society is another issue.

In all, class, marriage, behavior- they are given as "matters of fact" and not under the negative scope of irony or criticism- It is almost as if Jane herself wants you to create your own criticism of these days almost knowing what you are about to say.