Why do you choose to carry out a sterilization process for some pastes as an acidified product?

What sort of paste are you working with?
Being acidified / low pH will generally help with pathogen control, but even in combination with pasteurisation it won't necessarily address all potential bacteria (i.e. spores), so sterilisation may be required for truly ambient-stable products in some cases.

I don't believe any products go into a can or tube without being sterilized, even low acid foods

The difference is the time it takes to achieve "shelf stable sterility" will depend on Aw, pH, salt content and sugar content (naturally occurring or added), density of the product (how long to get to temp in the geometric mean of the container" temperature of the sterilizing vessel and length of time product is exposed to that temperature.

C. Botulism spores need to be either destroyed (sterile) or inactivated "acidified", meaning they cannot reproduce once the process is complete

I don't believe any products go into a can or tube without being sterilized, even low acid foods

 

I was thinking of canned soft drinks / juices, but they're perhaps not a "food" in the same sense.