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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
{
    return RPCHelpMan{"getaddressinfo",
                "\nReturn information about the given bitcoin address.\n"
                "Some of the information will only be present if the address is in the active wallet.\n",
                {
                    {"address", RPCArg::Type::STR, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The bitcoin address for which to get information."},
                },
                RPCResult{
                    RPCResult::Type::OBJ, "", "",
                    {
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR, "address", "The bitcoin address validated."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR_HEX, "scriptPubKey", "The hex-encoded scriptPubKey generated by the address."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "ismine", "If the address is yours."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "iswatchonly", "If the address is watchonly."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "solvable", "If we know how to spend coins sent to this address, ignoring the possible lack of private keys."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR, "desc",  true, "A descriptor for spending coins sent to this address (only when solvable)."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR, "parent_desc",  true, "The descriptor used to derive this address if this is a descriptor wallet"},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "isscript", "If the key is a script."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "ischange", "If the address was used for change output."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::BOOL, "iswitness", "If the address is a witness address."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::NUM, "witness_version",  true, "The version number of the witness program."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR_HEX, "witness_program",  true, "The hex value of the witness program."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR, "script",  true, "The output script type. Only if isscript is true and the redeemscript is known. Possible\n"
                                                                     "types: nonstandard, pubkey, pubkeyhash, scripthash, multisig, nulldata, witness_v0_keyhash,\n"
                            "witness_v0_scripthash, witness_unknown."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::STR_HEX, "hex",  true, "The redeemscript for the p2sh address."},
                        {RPCResult::Type::ARR, "pubkeys",  true, "Array of pubkeys associated with the known redeemscript (only if script is multisig).",
                        {