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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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 (URL_DECODE && request.URI.substr(0, WALLET_ENDPOINT_BASE.size()) == WALLET_ENDPOINT_BASE) {
        
        wallet_name = URL_DECODE(request.URI.substr(WALLET_ENDPOINT_BASE.size()));
        return true;
    }
    return false;
}
std::shared_ptr<CWallet> GetWalletForJSONRPCRequest(const JSONRPCRequest& request)
{
    CHECK_NONFATAL(!request.fHelp);
    std::string wallet_name;
    if (GetWalletNameFromJSONRPCRequest(request, wallet_name)) {
        std::shared_ptr<CWallet> pwallet = GetWallet(wallet_name);
        if (!pwallet) throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_NOT_FOUND, "Requested wallet does not exist or is not loaded");
        return pwallet;
    }
    std::vector<std::shared_ptr<CWallet>> wallets = GetWallets();
    if (wallets.size() == 1) {
        return wallets[0];
    }
    if (wallets.empty()) {
        throw JSONRPCError(
            RPC_WALLET_NOT_FOUND, "No wallet is loaded. Load a wallet using loadwallet or create a new one with createwallet. (Note: A default wallet is no longer automatically created)");
    }
    throw JSONRPCError(RPC_WALLET_NOT_SPECIFIED,
        "Wallet file not specified (must request wallet RPC through /wallet/<filename> uri-path).");
}
void EnsureWalletIsUnlocked(const CWallet* pwallet)