The required fields are connected but may be hidden.  When I referred to an unconnected field, that's just the buttons that act as the tabs, not an actual field.

Maybe I need to explain this more carefully?

My SharePoint list has several mandatory fields.  These are set as required in the SharePoint list settings.

I have a Nintex form for this SharePoint list.  It includes these mandatory fields (and other optional fields), and they are connected to the SharePoint list fields.

Some of the mandatory fields are within a Panel (the Nintex Form Control).  Based on a Rule, sometimes the Panel is set to Hide. 

The problem I'm having is that when the Panel containing the mandatory fields is Hidden, users can successfully submit the form with the mandatory fields blank.  This is breaking my team's processes and causing delays.

I need a way for the required fields to be enforced, even if the Panel they're within is set to Hide.

I worked with people in my organization, and as best we can tell, this is a defect with Nintex Forms.  I've worked around the issue by adding a rule to the submit button that disables it until the required fields are not blank.

That's a fine and all workaround, but I recommend moving any required fields outside of an object that can be hidden from a user's attention. By the nature of the word "required", if it is, then it should never be pushed into the background or hidden in such a way that it becomes inaccessible. 

Moving them into their own Panel seems like a solution where you can hide the unnecessary controls you'd like, without breaking anything. The only other solution I could think of would be to have some code that automatically populates those fields with a default value of some sort in the event that they must be hidden.

But if it absolutely requires user input then it really shouldn't be hidden.