If multirate filter banks have been used by engeeniers before wavelets theory, why it is important and useful to know that those filter banks correspond to wavelet functions?
The filter banks do not correspond to Wavelet functions but to the Wavelet decomposition tree that, through the use of the frame Wavelet, provides a wavelet filter bank stable with multiple resolution.
Yes. The are wavelet functions that are defined in the continuous axis like Gaussian wavelet, and there are others, like Daubechies', that don't have analytical expressions.