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That said, I'm wondering what the cost difference would be between upgrading from Mix straight to "Ultra HD", or whatever it ends up being called, versus upgrading from Mix to HD to "Ultra HD".
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This assumes there will be an upgrade path from Mix to "Ultra HD" and I wouldn't count on that. Digi has been threatening to cut that path for a long time now and I would highly doubt they would continue the generosity to the next level. Going from Mix to HD PCIe is a no-brainer IMHO. They have been giving people way more credit than those cards are worth in the open market for a long time now.
As for the OPs situation, I personally have found that selling your Accel PCIx stuff outright and buying a new HD Accel PCIe is the best way to go. It's worth more on the street than what Digi is offering for a cross-grade and works out to be way more economical plus you get any additional bonuses Digi is offering at the time to new system purchasers i.e. bonus plug-ins, etc. It might be a little more work than upgrading but the extra several thousand dollars was worth it to me.
As far as the expansion chassis route, that's just a band-aid; a road to nowhere. It only buys you some time but when you're done with it what will the resale value really be? Probably very close to nothing. No one is making PCIx cards anymore. Why would you buy something that is totally obsolete before you even get it? I know someone is going to make some quip about technology always being that way but this is more extreme. Think about it. Say 3 years from now whoever still has PCIx finally has to get a new computer. Why would they buy a used chassis? By then their PCIx stuff would have a decent upgrade path to whatever DIgi offers next. Plus, who says the chassis is going to be qualified with every new computer that comes out between now and whenever?
Again, selling outright and buying new is the most economical solution in the long run if you must switch right now. At least it is in the states. Don't know what your price points are in Europe and that may make a difference. The basic upgrade formula is - if Digi is crediting you more for your old hardware then you can get for it in the open market then do the upgrade. If you can get more for it by selling it and the difference covers a significant amount of how much more a new one will cost then sell it. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what other combinations work best with this strategy.
Good Luck.