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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
wallet.BlockUntilSyncedToCurrentChain();
    LOCK(wallet.cs_wallet);
    const auto bal = wallet.GetBalance();
    UniValue balances{UniValue::VOBJ};
    {
        UniValue balances_mine{UniValue::VOBJ};
        balances_mine.pushKV("trusted", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_mine_trusted));
        balances_mine.pushKV("untrusted_pending", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_mine_untrusted_pending));
        balances_mine.pushKV("immature", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_mine_immature));
        if (wallet.IsWalletFlagSet(WALLET_FLAG_AVOID_REUSE)) {
            
            
            const auto full_bal = wallet.GetBalance(0, false);
            balances_mine.pushKV("used", ValueFromAmount(full_bal.m_mine_trusted + full_bal.m_mine_untrusted_pending - bal.m_mine_trusted - bal.m_mine_untrusted_pending));
        }
        balances.pushKV("mine", balances_mine);
    }
    auto spk_man = wallet.GetLegacyScriptPubKeyMan();
    if (spk_man && spk_man->HaveWatchOnly()) {
        UniValue balances_watchonly{UniValue::VOBJ};
        balances_watchonly.pushKV("trusted", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_watchonly_trusted));
        balances_watchonly.pushKV("untrusted_pending", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_watchonly_untrusted_pending));
        balances_watchonly.pushKV("immature", ValueFromAmount(bal.m_watchonly_immature));
        balances.pushKV("watchonly", balances_watchonly);
    }
    return balances;
},
    };
}
static RPCHelpMan getwalletinfo()