I have encrypted my wallet.dat outside of this computer. Now I store my wallet.dat on this computer.
If I open it in Bitcoin Core, I can view the balance but not spend it (without entering the decryption passphrase).
Doesn’t this make an encrypted wallet.dat a “watch-only” wallet? Can’t I simply safely keep this on my PC and use the RPC API to check on the balance to make sure that it still contains my coins?
Basically: What is the difference between an encrypted wallet and a “watch-only” wallet? Why would I make a “watch-only” wallet when the encrypted wallet apparently has the same functionality, and is as secure?