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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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 (!wallet) return NullUniValue;
    const CWallet* const pwallet = wallet.get();
    
    
    pwallet->BlockUntilSyncedToCurrentChain();
    LOCK(pwallet->cs_wallet);
    UniValue jsonGroupings(UniValue::VARR);
    std::map<CTxDestination, CAmount> balances = pwallet->GetAddressBalances();
    for (const std::set<CTxDestination>& grouping : pwallet->GetAddressGroupings()) {
        UniValue jsonGrouping(UniValue::VARR);
        for (const CTxDestination& address : grouping)
        {
            UniValue addressInfo(UniValue::VARR);
            addressInfo.push_back(EncodeDestination(address));
            addressInfo.push_back(ValueFromAmount(balances[address]));
            {
                const auto* address_book_entry = pwallet->FindAddressBookEntry(address);
                if (address_book_entry) {
                    addressInfo.push_back(address_book_entry->GetLabel());
                }
            }
            jsonGrouping.push_back(addressInfo);
        }
        jsonGroupings.push_back(jsonGrouping);
    }
    return jsonGroupings;
},
    };
}
static RPCHelpMan signmessage()