The continuity requirements depend on what kind of partial equations we are trying to solve.
For two-dimensional or three dimensional elasticity, you can see that the governing equation (strong form) has the second order derivative of the displacement. In the weak form, we will have first order derivative of the displacement. Even though the derivative is not continuous at the inter-elements edges, but as long as it is square integrable. We are fine.
For thin plate and shell or Euler beam, the governing equation is biharmonic and to have square integrable integral the first order derivative has to be continuous at the inter-element edges.