I think of it as a barbarian weapon, for the most part, or evil undead. Undead can gain temporary hit points via energy drain and use that to power the Vicious effect, so it works well for them. Barbarians tend to have a whole pile of hit points, so they can spare it, but to be honest they'll usually kill stuff in one hit anyway.
Obviously it's better if you have some way of regaining hit points. I played a psychic warrior in 3.5 with a Vicious weapon and a power that let him regain 1d6 HP with each attack, so the GM just called it a wash while I had that power active.
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My PFS Mystic Theurge will likely purchase a Vicious weapon enchantment. The extra 7 HP damage gives a 30% damage boost, and he can spare a few HP here and there. He tends to make two powerful attacks in Round 1 then avoids melee. I might chicken out. I'm eager to see some opionions on this topic. That may help me decide.
Paladins, ironically enough, would probably be pretty good with vicious weapons. Swift-action self-heals are handy that way.
I have seen it used, it is a ton of fun. The player made a vampire-esq character, they used a great sword with vicious and then they put vampiric touch on it. We ruled that they healed the 2d6 from the great sword but not the 2d6 from the vicious. So they would deal 4d6 + 1.5 strength + etc and healing 2d6 a hit and then take 1d6 damage. They loved it, and I had fun playing up the idea that his hands looks scratched and scared to hell, as if a hell beast had bitten his hands many times. It played into his character and he adopted the idea of high risk, high reward by doing things that would hurt him if it gave him a gain or bonus. So yeah, vicious is fun from a crunch and fluff perspective. I cant speak much to summoned monsters or whatnot with it, but that character played a barbarian and he seemed to enjoy it.