While working on this PR https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/18570 I ran into a bit confusing situation where in one function a **CWallet reference** was expected while two others dealt with **CWallet pointers**. My initial reaction was: `let's harmonize them by making them references`. However, not being part of the PR itself I did't change anything and completed the PR first.

Now, after having analyzed the `rpcwallet.cpp` code I came to the conclusion that:

* converting them all into references is not the solution as they're originally **shared_ptr**s
* but also: there is no (visible) reason why every RPC function should begin like this:

```cpp
std::shared_ptr<CWallet> const pwallet = GetWalletForJSONRPCRequest(request);
const CWallet* const pwallet = wallet.get();
```

This clearly defeats the purpose of shared pointers for no obvious reason. *Maybe I am missing something?*

In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept their original names (that is, *pwallet*). In the end, they're pointers too, so the most of the original code remained untouched.

However, some of the helper functions couldn't be changed because external code is accessing them and I didn't want to make this task "virulent". So I introduced new ("Ref") variants that expect **shared_ptr** parameters, namely: 

```cpp
void EnsureWalletRefIsUnlocked(const std::shared_ptr<CWallet>);
bool EnsureWalletRefIsAvailable(const std::shared_ptr<CWallet>, bool avoidException);
```

I have tested the code, with python and boost-tests, and could not find any errors. 
But before opening a PR I would like to open a discussion about this. 

Is there any reason to keep on working with raw pointers when every function call actually begins with *shared_ptr*s?

Regards,
{
    return RPCHelpMan{"listtransactions",
                "\nIf a label name is provided, this will return only incoming transactions paying to addresses with the specified label.\n"
                "\nReturns up to 'count' most recent transactions skipping the first 'from' transactions.\n",
                {
                    {"label|dummy", RPCArg::Type::STR, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED_NAMED_ARG, "If set, should be a valid label name to return only incoming transactions\n"
                          "with the specified label, or \"*\" to disable filtering and return all transactions."},
                    {"count", RPCArg::Type::NUM,  "10", "The number of transactions to return"},
                    {"skip", RPCArg::Type::NUM,  "0", "The number of transactions to skip"},
                    {"include_watchonly", RPCArg::Type::BOOL,  "true for watch-only wallets, otherwise false", "Include transactions to watch-only addresses (see 'importaddress')"},
                },
                RPCResult{
                    RPCResult::Type::ARR, "", "",
                    {
                        {RPCResult::Type::OBJ, "", "", Cat(Cat<std::vector<RPCResult>>(
                        {
                            {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "involvesWatchonly", "Only returns true if imported addresses were involved in transaction."},
                            {RPCResult::Type::STR, "address", "The bitcoin address of the transaction."},
                            {RPCResult::Type::STR, "category", "The transaction category.\n"
                                "\"send\"                  Transactions sent.\n"
                                "\"receive\"               Non-coinbase transactions received.\n"
                                "\"generate\"              Coinbase transactions received with more than 100 confirmations.\n"
                                "\"immature\"              Coinbase transactions received with 100 or fewer confirmations.\n"
                                "\"orphan\"                Orphaned coinbase transactions received."},
                            {RPCResult::Type::STR_AMOUNT, "amount", "The amount in " + CURRENCY_UNIT + ". This is negative for the 'send' category, and is positive\n"
                                "for all other categories"},