It is common to hear about people who dislike using potions and the like. It is often a mark of a character not being well designed/upgraded/played.
In Diablo, some people used potions as fuel... That meant potions were patching the character's shotcomings.

It also will depend on the game design. Sometimes a minimum use of potions (but not too much) might be almost mandatory. Thinking about Torchlight, to name one. Also it will depend of the kind of character. Also, there are both health and mana potions.

The Witcher might be an exception: by design, you can make new potions in a sustainable way, and they add a lot. This might be one of the most interesting potion systems in PC games.
Hum. For the life of me, I cannot remember now. I never used potions in BG, anyway. But some potions that set strength to 18, in case the character already has 18, they give full 100 percentiles, for the time of the effect, instead of what the character had originally.

There's also Alchemy in Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim, which can produce some very useful effects (to the point of breaking Morrowind/Skyrim via exponential growth until the integers wrap around).

Final Fantasy 5's Mix ability puts a neat little spin on potions, as well, and it's one of the most useful abilities in the game. (I actually think Mix, rather than Drink, should have been the Chemist's job command. Drink isn't enough to sustain a job that isn't good with physical attacks; Mix is.)