At the time, being able to run windows applications on OS/2 was a big feature, so there wasn't much need for native applications. Windows 95 came out, and its apps were not compatible, so the feature ended up accelerated its demise.
I used it to run my BBS, OS/2 was great for muktitasking and stability. The built in networking was great, being used to Windows 3.1 at the time.
It was also very common in voicemail systems and is also used in IBM cheque scanners.
I don't have any interest in running IBM Works, but there has been interest in running old BBS software lately...
The windows compatibility was much touted but it was never impactful enough to compel any significant numbers of DOS/Win users to switch, so it's not like that feature ceasing to work with the arrival of Windows 95 resulted in masses of OS/2 users switching back. There simply never were masses of users.
What IBM needed was some killer OS/2-specific programs to attract the masses. There was a window (har har) of time where they probably could have done it, but they missed it. They certainly had the resources at the time.
It's also important to remember that PC hardware support was an absolute nightmare back then. OS/2 needed drivers written for everything, and very little was standardized, there wasn't even USB. Hardware compatibility combined with a lack of attractive native software were the major barriers to mass adoption IMHO.
edit:
This stroll down memory lane just reminded me of the pile of 30+ 3.5" floppy disks required to install OS/2, which I had to write myself using the CDROM from DOS, because OS/2 couldn't use that particular CDROM successfully yet.
I've come across some old IBM Intellistation PCs which were used as check scanners. They had a bunch of weird PCI cards inside and the systems were running OS/2. I dug around the hard drives and found check images. Whoever let those go without wiping the drives really goofed up. Good thing I found them and not someone else.
