I'd say that, in the examples you've given, they are interchangeable.
Yet, if you omit the "does", the meaning changes: "she dresses like her mother" => she wears the same kind of clothes as her mother. // "She dresses as her mother" => she dresses so as to impersonate her mother.
Likewise: "she works like a slave" (that's my favourite example!) => she works as much as a slave does.//"She works as a slave" => that's her job: slave.
I'm not quite sure I've answered your question...