I contacted Club Carlson, as I had another crappy experience, this time at the Radisson Blu Royal in Brussels. I asked at the same time about upgrades, and I got the answer that nothing has changed. According to the mail I got:

"...the benefit of room upgrade does not apply in Europe, Middle East and Africa, but the rest of the world. In this part of the world a Gold Elite-member is guaranteed the best room in the category booked (better view, recently refurbished room, bigger room, etc.), whereas a Concierge-member will always get a room upgrade to the higher room category (providing there are any higher category rooms available of course)."

So regardless of what is said on the webpage, these seem to be the rules. In other words, nothing has changed, and me not getting any room upgrades is what I should expect. The rest of you are just lucky :P