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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
std::vector<std::pair<CScript, int64_t>> scripts;
        while (file.good()) {
            pwallet->chain().showProgress("", std::max(1, std::min(50, (int)(((double)file.tellg() / (double)nFilesize) * 100))), false);
            std::string line;
            std::getline(file, line);
            if (line.empty() || line[0] == '#')
                continue;
            std::vector<std::string> vstr;
            boost::split(vstr, line, boost::is_any_of(" "));
            if (vstr.size() < 2)
                continue;
            CKey key = DecodeSecret(vstr[0]);
            if (key.IsValid()) {
                int64_t nTime = ParseISO8601DateTime(vstr[1]);
                std::string strLabel;
                bool fLabel = true;
                for (unsigned int nStr = 2; nStr < vstr.size(); nStr++) {
                    if (vstr[nStr].front() == '#')
                        break;
                    if (vstr[nStr] == "change=1")
                        fLabel = false;
                    if (vstr[nStr] == "reserve=1")
                        fLabel = false;
                    if (vstr[nStr].substr(0,6) == "label=") {
                        strLabel = DecodeDumpString(vstr[nStr].substr(6));
                        fLabel = true;
                    }
                }
                keys.push_back(std::make_tuple(key, nTime, fLabel, strLabel));
            } else if(IsHex(vstr[0])) {