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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
bool fLabelFound = false;
    CKey key;
    spk_man->GetKey(keyid, key);
    for (const auto& dest : GetAllDestinationsForKey(key.GetPubKey())) {
        const auto* address_book_entry = pwallet->FindAddressBookEntry(dest);
        if (address_book_entry) {
            if (!strAddr.empty()) {
                strAddr += ",";
            }
            strAddr += EncodeDestination(dest);
            strLabel = EncodeDumpString(address_book_entry->GetLabel());
            fLabelFound = true;
        }
    }
    if (!fLabelFound) {
        strAddr = EncodeDestination(GetDestinationForKey(key.GetPubKey(), pwallet->m_default_address_type));
    }
    return fLabelFound;
}
static const int64_t TIMESTAMP_MIN = 0;
static void RescanWallet(CWallet& wallet, const WalletRescanReserver& reserver, int64_t time_begin = TIMESTAMP_MIN, bool update = true)
{
    int64_t scanned_time = wallet.RescanFromTime(time_begin, reserver, update);
    if (wallet.IsAbortingRescan()) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_MISC_ERROR, "Rescan aborted by user.");
    } else if (scanned_time > time_begin) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_ERROR, "Rescan was unable to fully rescan the blockchain. Some transactions may be missing.");
    }
}
RPCHelpMan importprivkey()