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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
if (!wallet) return NullUniValue;
    CWallet* const pwallet = wallet.get();
    EnsureLegacyScriptPubKeyMan(*wallet, true);
    if (pwallet->chain().havePruned()) {
        
        
        
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Importing wallets is disabled when blocks are pruned");
    }
    WalletRescanReserver reserver(*pwallet);
    if (!reserver.reserve()) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Wallet is currently rescanning. Abort existing rescan or wait.");
    }
    int64_t nTimeBegin = 0;
    bool fGood = true;
    {
        LOCK(pwallet->cs_wallet);
        EnsureWalletIsUnlocked(pwallet);
        fsbridge::ifstream file;
        file.open(request.params[0].get_str(), std::ios::in | std::ios::ate);
        if (!file.is_open()) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Cannot open wallet dump file");
        }
        CHECK_NONFATAL(pwallet->chain().findBlock(pwallet->GetLastBlockHash(), FoundBlock().time(nTimeBegin)));
        int64_t nFilesize = std::max((int64_t)1, (int64_t)file.tellg());
        file.seekg(0, file.beg);
        
        
        pwallet->chain().showProgress(strprintf("%s " + _("Importing...").translated, pwallet->GetDisplayName()), 0, false); 
        std::vector<std::tuple<CKey, int64_t, bool, std::string>> keys;