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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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 UniValue& pubKeys = data.exists("pubkeys") ? data["pubkeys"].get_array() : UniValue();
    const UniValue& keys = data.exists("keys") ? data["keys"].get_array() : UniValue();
    const bool internal = data.exists("internal") ? data["internal"].get_bool() : false;
    const bool watchOnly = data.exists("watchonly") ? data["watchonly"].get_bool() : false;
    if (data.exists("range")) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Range should not be specified for a non-descriptor import");
    }
    
    CScript script;
    if (!isScript) {
        CTxDestination dest = DecodeDestination(output);
        if (!IsValidDestination(dest)) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_ADDRESS_OR_KEY, "Invalid address \"" + output + "\"");
        }
        script = GetScriptForDestination(dest);
    } else {
        if (!IsHex(output)) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_ADDRESS_OR_KEY, "Invalid scriptPubKey \"" + output + "\"");
        }
        std::vector<unsigned char> vData(ParseHex(output));
        script = CScript(vData.begin(), vData.end());
        CTxDestination dest;
        if (!ExtractDestination(script, dest) && !internal) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Internal must be set to true for nonstandard scriptPubKey imports.");
        }
    }
    script_pub_keys.emplace(script);
    
    if (strRedeemScript.size()) {
        if (!IsHex(strRedeemScript)) {