NP-Completeness of the decision problem for the generalized 15-puzzle
I think that I found a partial (although quite disappointing) answer to my problem:

I stumbled across this paper (2007):

"The Complexity of Three-Dimensional Channel Routing" by     Satoshi Tayu and Shuichi Ueno

They show (Theorem 4) that the "3d-channel routing problem" with "2-nets" and dimension $p,q$ can be solved if and only if the corresponding (check article for more details) $p \times q-1$ puzzle can be solved.

Below Theorem 1 they propose some problem they call "2.5-D CHANNEL ROUTING", which is basically "3d-channel routing" with fixed depth $k$. They also say "the complexity of
the following problem [2.5-D Channel Routing] is open for any fxed integer $k \geq 2$".

If we knew that the decision version of the $p \times q-1$ puzzle is NP-Complete for some fixed $k \geq 2$ we would also know that 2.5-D Channel Routing is difficult for that $k$, therefore it seems the question can be reduced to some open problem.

It could of course be that the answer to my question would be that $p \times q-1$ puzzle is in P for all fixed $k$, which would still leave their question open (as the general routing doesn't only handle $2$-Nets). Therefore this is no complete answer, it is also rather disappointing that they include no references when claiming that the problem is still open.