The bigger the vise, the less likely you're going to want, or need a swivel base. They get too tall to mount on a normal bench, so they get put on a stand to set them at the right height. If they're on a stand, you can rotate around the vise rather than vice versa (pun intended).
Opinions vary, of course.
For me, my last vise was a 94-pound Reed, on a vise table I built (patterned after my Grandfather's vise table he made to hold his big Parker). I swiveled that all the time.
Now I'm mounting a Wilton C2 to my table, about the same weight, with a taller jaw so I can set things down into it, and it swivels.
The Family Parker swivels too... I've grown up using big swivel base vises, and have needed them to swivel so frequently that I can't imagine ever having a vise that doesn't swivel.
But you are right about a big vise not working well on a normal-height work bench. Any of my vises is totally useless on my welding table--it's work area is the same as your kitchen counter. Throw a big vise on it, and you're working at chest height, so you get no leverage and a crappy line of sight down onto the work.
My vise tables are low, and have the top of the vise jaws as the work height.
-Brad
