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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
+ HelpExampleCli("createrawtransaction", "\"[]\" \"{\\\"myaddress\\\":0.01}\"") +
                            "\nAdd sufficient unsigned inputs to meet the output value\n"
                            + HelpExampleCli("fundrawtransaction", "\"rawtransactionhex\"") +
                            "\nSign the transaction\n"
                            + HelpExampleCli("signrawtransactionwithwallet", "\"fundedtransactionhex\"") +
                            "\nSend the transaction\n"
                            + HelpExampleCli("sendrawtransaction", "\"signedtransactionhex\"")
                                },
        [&](const RPCHelpMan& self, const JSONRPCRequest& request) -> UniValue
{
    std::shared_ptr<CWallet> const wallet = GetWalletForJSONRPCRequest(request);
    if (!wallet) return NullUniValue;
    CWallet* const pwallet = wallet.get();
    RPCTypeCheck(request.params, {UniValue::VSTR, UniValueType(), UniValue::VBOOL});
    
    CMutableTransaction tx;
    bool try_witness = request.params[2].isNull() ? true : request.params[2].get_bool();
    bool try_no_witness = request.params[2].isNull() ? true : !request.params[2].get_bool();
    if (!DecodeHexTx(tx, request.params[0].get_str(), try_no_witness, try_witness)) {
        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_DESERIALIZATION_ERROR, "TX decode failed");
    }
    CAmount fee;
    int change_position;
    CCoinControl coin_control;
    
    coin_control.m_add_inputs = true;
    FundTransaction(pwallet, tx, fee, change_position, request.params[1], coin_control,  true);
    UniValue result(UniValue::VOBJ);
    result.pushKV("hex", EncodeHexTx(CTransaction(tx)));
    result.pushKV("fee", ValueFromAmount(fee));