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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
const CTxDestination& address = item_it->first;
        const std::string& label = item_it->second.GetLabel();
        auto it = mapTally.find(address);
        if (it == mapTally.end() && !fIncludeEmpty)
            continue;
        CAmount nAmount = 0;
        int nConf = std::numeric_limits<int>::max();
        bool fIsWatchonly = false;
        if (it != mapTally.end())
        {
            nAmount = (*it).second.nAmount;
            nConf = (*it).second.nConf;
            fIsWatchonly = (*it).second.fIsWatchonly;
        }
        if (by_label)
        {
            tallyitem& _item = label_tally[label];
            _item.nAmount += nAmount;
            _item.nConf = std::min(_item.nConf, nConf);
            _item.fIsWatchonly = fIsWatchonly;
        }
        else
        {
            UniValue obj(UniValue::VOBJ);
            if(fIsWatchonly)
                obj.pushKV("involvesWatchonly", true);
            obj.pushKV("address",       EncodeDestination(address));
            obj.pushKV("amount",        ValueFromAmount(nAmount));
            obj.pushKV("confirmations", (nConf == std::numeric_limits<int>::max() ? 0 : nConf));
            obj.pushKV("label", label);