After a emergency/malfunction "continue flight" to me is "continue flight back to a base where repairs could be made without doing another couple of hours of flight."
continue flight =! complete the mission (but also is not "land as soon as possible")
So if I'm flying from A to B to stop and refuel, and then proceed to C , after a malfunction/emergency I don't care what the mel or management says.
I'm going to continue and end the flight at the next destination in my flight, in this case B.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards.