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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
}
        CPubKey pubkey = key.GetPubKey();
        CKeyID id = pubkey.GetID();
        if (pubkey_map.count(id)) {
            pubkey_map.erase(id);
        }
        privkey_map.emplace(id, key);
    }
    
    have_solving_data = import_data.redeemscript || import_data.witnessscript || pubkey_map.size() || privkey_map.size();
    if (have_solving_data) {
        
        auto error = RecurseImportData(script, import_data, ScriptContext::TOP);
        
        bool spendable = std::all_of(import_data.used_keys.begin(), import_data.used_keys.end(), [&](const std::pair<CKeyID, bool>& used_key){ return privkey_map.count(used_key.first) > 0; });
        if (!watchOnly && !spendable) {
            warnings.push_back("Some private keys are missing, outputs will be considered watchonly. If this is intentional, specify the watchonly flag.");
        }
        if (watchOnly && spendable) {
            warnings.push_back("All private keys are provided, outputs will be considered spendable. If this is intentional, do not specify the watchonly flag.");
        }
        
        if (error.empty()) {
            for (const auto& require_key : import_data.used_keys) {
                if (!require_key.second) continue; 
                if (pubkey_map.count(require_key.first) == 0 && privkey_map.count(require_key.first) == 0) {
                    error = "some required keys are missing";
                }
            }
        }