You are right, phalcon documention is something that has to be reviewed. (actually same occured for me when i started with phalcon).
You have to know that the phalcon team is aware of the global documentation problem, but today they are more focused on phalcon 2. I'm pretty sure they plan to improve the documentation with the version 2. Anyway your feedback is appreciated !
About the dispatch loop there are of course some other things that happen, but most of the job is done by the dispatcher (and the controller that itself is controlled by the dispatcher), there is also the routing, the view, the response, etc..., but dispatcher event are enough to handle most of the cases you are looking for. Actually if there was a schema to draw, the dispatcher would cover most of the picture.
PS : you can go on the IRC : https://forum.phalcon.io/discussion/225/irc-phalconphp some people may help you in a different way.
Edit : stay tuned about the schema. Maybe something will pop out in the coming days.