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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
{"transactions", RPCArg::Type::ARR,  "empty array", "The transaction outputs and within each, the txid (string) vout (numeric).",
                        {
                            {"", RPCArg::Type::OBJ, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED, "",
                                {
                                    {"txid", RPCArg::Type::STR_HEX, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The transaction id"},
                                    {"vout", RPCArg::Type::NUM, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The output number"},
                                },
                            },
                        },
                    },
                },
                RPCResult{
                    RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "", "Whether the command was successful or not"
                },
                RPCExamples{
            "\nList the unspent transactions\n"
            + HelpExampleCli("listunspent", "") +
            "\nLock an unspent transaction\n"
            + HelpExampleCli("lockunspent", "false \"[{\\\"txid\\\":\\\"a08e6907dbbd3d809776dbfc5d82e371b764ed838b5655e72f463568df1aadf0\\\",\\\"vout\\\":1}]\"") +
            "\nList the locked transactions\n"
            + HelpExampleCli("listlockunspent", "") +
            "\nUnlock the transaction again\n"
            + HelpExampleCli("lockunspent", "true \"[{\\\"txid\\\":\\\"a08e6907dbbd3d809776dbfc5d82e371b764ed838b5655e72f463568df1aadf0\\\",\\\"vout\\\":1}]\"") +
            "\nAs a JSON-RPC call\n"
            + HelpExampleRpc("lockunspent", "false, \"[{\\\"txid\\\":\\\"a08e6907dbbd3d809776dbfc5d82e371b764ed838b5655e72f463568df1aadf0\\\",\\\"vout\\\":1}]\"")
                },
        [&](const RPCHelpMan& self, const JSONRPCRequest& request) -> UniValue
{
    std::shared_ptr<CWallet> const wallet = GetWalletForJSONRPCRequest(request);
    if (!wallet) return NullUniValue;