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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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 (target_confirms < 1) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, "Invalid parameter");
        }
    }
    if (ParseIncludeWatchonly(request.params[2], wallet)) {
        filter |= ISMINE_WATCH_ONLY;
    }
    bool include_removed = (request.params[3].isNull() || request.params[3].get_bool());
    int depth = height ? wallet.GetLastBlockHeight() + 1 - *height : -1;
    UniValue transactions(UniValue::VARR);
    for (const std::pair<const uint256, CWalletTx>& pairWtx : wallet.mapWallet) {
        const CWalletTx& tx = pairWtx.second;
        if (depth == -1 || abs(tx.GetDepthInMainChain()) < depth) {
            ListTransactions(&wallet, tx, 0, true, transactions, filter, nullptr );
        }
    }
    
    
    UniValue removed(UniValue::VARR);
    while (include_removed && altheight && *altheight > *height) {
        CBlock block;
        if (!wallet.chain().findBlock(blockId, FoundBlock().data(block)) || block.IsNull()) {
            throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INTERNAL_ERROR, "Can't read block from disk");
        }
        for (const CTransactionRef& tx : block.vtx) {
            auto it = wallet.mapWallet.find(tx->GetHash());
            if (it != wallet.mapWallet.end()) {
                
                
                ListTransactions(&wallet, it->second, -100000000, true, removed, filter, nullptr );