Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant, but not nearly as strong as SO2. When problems cropped up in salad bars using sulfite solutions to prevent browning, everyone switched to ascorbic acid. It's not strong enough to inhibit yeast fermentation, but it aparently inhibit MLF.
Microorganisms are as varied as animals, and there are probably more species of microorganisms than there are animals. Even in the bacterial world there are bacteria that live near the volcanic vents on the ocean floor at temperatures of 500F or more, others that can survive total vacuum and lack of moisture for decades, some that cannot live in the presence of oxygen, some that secrete sulfuric acid as a byproduct and thrive at a pH of <1, others that ... well, you get the idea.
It is a mistake, however, to think that all bacteria within a single species or sub-type are identical. All humans are of the species **** sapiens, but some of us are tall, some short, some strong, some ... well you get the idea.
The net result is that, using bacterial genocide, you can select strains of a bacterial species with stronger tolerances. If you take wild MLF bacteria, plate it out to select single cell colonies (standard culturing techniques for a century) and then grow it in an environment of pH 3.0, some of the cells will survive. You select those cells and grow your culture. Then you grow that culture on a medium with 15% abv, and some of them will survive. Then you grow the survivors at 55F, and the ones that grow now constitute a strain that tolerates pH as low as 3.0, alcohol as high as 15%, and temps as low as 55. In escence you have systematically killed off all of the strains that cannot tolerate these conditions.
Now, if you put this strain back into a more favorable environment with the original culture you may find that the bacteria that couldn't handle the extremes can out- compete the specialized strain. The whole ecological dynamic is facinating to me.