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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
UniValue options{request.params[4].isNull() ? UniValue::VOBJ : request.params[4]};
            if (options.exists("conf_target") || options.exists("estimate_mode")) {
                if (!request.params[1].isNull() || !request.params[2].isNull()) {
                    throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Pass conf_target and estimate_mode either as arguments or in the options object, but not both");
                }
            } else {
                options.pushKV("conf_target", request.params[1]);
                options.pushKV("estimate_mode", request.params[2]);
            }
            if (options.exists("fee_rate")) {
                if (!request.params[3].isNull()) {
                    throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Pass the fee_rate either as an argument, or in the options object, but not both");
                }
            } else {
                options.pushKV("fee_rate", request.params[3]);
            }
            if (!options["conf_target"].isNull() && (options["estimate_mode"].isNull() || (options["estimate_mode"].get_str() == "unset"))) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Specify estimate_mode");
            }
            if (options.exists("feeRate")) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Use fee_rate (" + CURRENCY_ATOM + "/vB) instead of feeRate");
            }
            if (options.exists("changeAddress")) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Use change_address");
            }
            if (options.exists("changePosition")) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Use change_position");
            }
            if (options.exists("includeWatching")) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Use include_watching");