I was prescribed it after I broke a leg in judo. I was shocked when I looked it up and found forums rife with addicts in great distress.
Opiate withdrawals don't kill you, although you'll want to die; Tramadol has a weird secondary set of effects that act like an SSRI/anti-depressant, so you get both the opiate withdrawal symptoms as well as SSRI discontinuation syndrome symptoms which is a very unpleasant combination.
It's a decent painkiller, but like any opiate based pain medication has potential for abuse.
This is not a new phenomenon. Many opioids, including heroin, when introduced where thought to be "less addicting" than older opium-derived drugs. Of course, this turned out to be mistaken and now it's being played out with several "less addictive" opioids in common use.
I certainly wouldn't regard tramadol as innocuous, besides abuse and dependence, it can also have serious interactions with other medications, particularly serotonin overload which can be deadly.