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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
flags |= WALLET_FLAG_EXTERNAL_SIGNER;
#else
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Configure with --enable-external-signer to use this");
#endif
    }
#ifndef USE_BDB
    if (!(flags & WALLET_FLAG_DESCRIPTORS)) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Compiled without bdb support (required for legacy wallets)");
    }
#endif
    DatabaseOptions options;
    DatabaseStatus status;
    options.require_create = true;
    options.create_flags = flags;
    options.create_passphrase = passphrase;
    bilingual_str error;
    Optional<bool> load_on_start = request.params[6].isNull() ? nullopt : Optional<bool>(request.params[6].get_bool());
    std::shared_ptr<CWallet> wallet = CreateWallet(*context.chain, request.params[0].get_str(), load_on_start, options, status, error, warnings);
    if (!wallet) {
        RPCErrorCode code = status == DatabaseStatus::FAILED_ENCRYPT ? RPC_WALLET_ENCRYPTION_FAILED : RPC_WALLET_ERROR;
        throw JSONRPCError(code, error.original);
    }
    UniValue obj(UniValue::VOBJ);
    obj.pushKV("name", wallet->GetName());
    obj.pushKV("warning", Join(warnings, Untranslated("\n")).original);
    return obj;
},
    };
}
static RPCHelpMan unloadwallet()