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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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 (!IsValidDestination(dest)) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_ADDRESS_OR_KEY, "Invalid Bitcoin address");
        }
        CScript script_pub_key = GetScriptForDestination(dest);
        if (!wallet.IsMine(script_pub_key)) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Address not found in wallet");
        }
        address_set.insert(dest);
    }
    
    int min_depth = 1;
    if (!params[1].isNull())
        min_depth = params[1].get_int();
    
    CAmount amount = 0;
    for (const std::pair<const uint256, CWalletTx>& wtx_pair : wallet.mapWallet) {
        const CWalletTx& wtx = wtx_pair.second;
        if (wtx.IsCoinBase() || !wallet.chain().checkFinalTx(*wtx.tx) || wtx.GetDepthInMainChain() < min_depth) {
            continue;
        }
        for (const CTxOut& txout : wtx.tx->vout) {
            CTxDestination address;
            if (ExtractDestination(txout.scriptPubKey, address) && wallet.IsMine(address) && address_set.count(address)) {
                amount += txout.nValue;
            }
        }
    }
    return amount;
}
static RPCHelpMan getreceivedbyaddress()